Dolly Parton: Insights From The Book Lady

We’ve heard many welcome tributes to Dolly Parton and her great role as the Book Lady. As most know, one of Dolly Parton’s many contributions and her passion was Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Former PBS NewsHour correspondent John Merrow recently shared an interview he had with Dolly where she explains why the Imagination Library matters. Her discussion is especially interesting for reading instruction, and he has given me permission to share his blog and discuss Dolly’s words further. I encourage you to visit his link and watch the videos.

Read to Baby!

Dolly Parton understood children and how they learn. She knew the critical importance of picture books, even at birth. That’s when the Imagination Library starts giving books to children.

Merrow asks Dolly why then. Why read to a baby? Most of us would wonder, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that reading to a baby is a critical step.

Dolly talks about giving children a good start, knowing they own their own book, and helping them understand how important they are. What she may or may not have known was that reading to babies matters!

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends reading at birth. Why?

The sound of a soothing voice, a baby cuddled in a caregiver’s arms, the words a baby hears, and, as they get a little older, the pictures (babies especially like baby faces) help children with language from the start.

Years ago, without knowing this, I found that voicing the words softly and pointing to pictures quieted my baby during a bout with colic. It helped get us through that difficult time. My husband and I never stopped reading and emphasizing books, and our child loved reading from the start.

Dolly Parton did a wise thing insisting that every child get a book at birth! I tell any new mom, or future mom, to have plenty of picture books ready for when they begin a new life with baby. Read, read, read from the start! See Babies Need Books.

And every child needs books of their own to cherish. Dolly gets children off to that great start at birth. Parents should not wait to read that book. Read it to baby!

Check out this CNN video.

Dolly Could Not Remember Learning to Read!

Dolly Parton loved to read, but she revealed in the Merrow interview, she came from a home where there were no books other than the Bible. Her parents could not afford to pay for books if they were lost or damaged, and with so many young children that was a likely possibility.

Dolly did not get the books that seem crucial for children to read well. So how did she learn to read so effortlessly, and how is it that she can’t remember when or how she learned to read, only that she absolutely loved to read? I found this fascinating.

What Dolly did recall were the Bible readings and the stories her mother told. At one point she tells how she loved the stories she heard about the Old Testament and she found them visual. It sounds like much vivid auditory language existed in the Parton household.

Today, reading instruction is overly focused on skill acquisition, words children see and hear, but which might not be enjoyed. Less attention is paid to the rich language children hear in their lives and also speak.

Consider how young children talk a lot, relying on auditory language as much as the visual component. They’re listening to their words, reinforcing sounds and words they find interesting. This is especially critical for children born with health difficulties, or considered to have disabilities. Positive feedback from adults closest to them matters.

Dolly also liked writing. Writing and reading go hand and hand.

I don’t know why Dolly couldn’t remember how she learned to read, especially without exposure to books, but I would guess that despite a poor household, she had grown up in a rich language environment.

The words and sounds she heard were enticing and later when she was in school and the teacher taught reading, her rich vocabulary and the sounds she knew were given flight. She had been exposed to much information which probably helped make reading come easily.

In addition, Dolly talks about her dad’s illiteracy but that he was very smart. Dolly, as we know, was very smart as well which likely allowed her to pick up sounds and reading effortlessly, and also helped her become a great lyric writer.

Honor Dolly with the Imagination Library and Great School Libraries!

It should not go unnoticed, that it took the Book Lady’s attention to help young children get picture books that matter. While I’m grateful to Dolly, and I hope the Dolly Parton Imagination Library will keep up the wonderful work in their founder’s name, it also raises a question as to why it took a celebrity to remind the rest of the country, the importance of reading books to children.

Some still don’t get it. Maine, Missouri, Washington reduced or cut funding or support to Dolly’s program. Indiana and Washington might be working to find other funds. If they have financial woes, why can’t another billionaire step up? Why isn’t this seen as critical to the education of America’s kids?

Consider that states like Missouri have also underfunded their school libraries and have reduced the credentials and qualifications of school librarians.

Why, with a rich nation like ours, can we not afford to provide children with books they love and which will help them to learn to read? I think you likely know like I do that the country has mixed priorities!

While money is poured into unproven AI and state mandates that push online reading for a so-called Science of Reading, what we know works, getting books children like so that they will read, is seen as just an extra perk.

How many poor schools have lost school libraries and school librarians? How can we expect students to grow up liking reading, understanding its importance? Research is clear that schools with well-resourced school libraries and librarians also have higher reading scores.

It took the Book Lady from the Tennessee Mountains, a woman who knew struggle, but also understood gratitude, deep abiding gratitude for how she became recognized and popular in America, and who wanted so much to give back, to showcase the importance of books to learning.

She will always be remembered as that giver. Her legacy and love for all, including and especially for the children, will live forever. And I hope her legacy will help Americans see what is truly important in teaching children to read—the great joy of owning a book that is all theirs and being read to by the loving adults in their lives.