Dolly Parton gave hundreds of millions of free books to kids through her Imagination Library — something she felt honoured to be able to do, based on to a Canadian who picks books for the program.

“She would view the Imagination Library and her legacy as a privilege,” noted Chaya Kulkarni, who sits on the Imagination Library’s book selection committee, and is director of infant and early mental health promotion at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

“It was a privilege to have the capacity and the resources to do this, to create this program that has touched the lives of millions of children around the world ... it came from a very deep place in her heart and from her own childhood,” she told The Current’s guest host Susan Ormiston.

In a related development, parton died this week. She was 80. Tributes have poured in applauding her work as a nation music and pop culture icon, and also as a philanthropist. She started the Imagination Library in 1995, gifting more than 300 million books worldwide, including five million books in Canada, and 730,595 in 2025 alone. Eligible children receive one free book per month, up until they're five years old.

Music icon Dolly Parton dead at 80

Parton started the program in tribute to her own father, who couldn’t read or write. In 2020, she mentioned she was “as proud of the Imagination Library as I ever will be [of] anything I ever do for the rest of my life.”

Furthermore, announcing her death, Parton's family asked for donations to the Imagination Library in lieu of flowers, while the program has confirmed it will continue to send out books.

Kulkarni spoke to Ormiston about that work, and Parton’s legacy.

You did meet her numerous times. What was she like?

Additionally, she just was very kind and really [you saw] her desire to be a good person, to be kind, to inspire others on so a host of different platforms — whether they were musicians or people working with young children. She was just a very kind and generous and humble person.

When I look back at meeting her and just getting to know her through the program, I really think that for her, she would view the Imagination Library and her legacy as a privilege.

For her it was a privilege to have the capacity and the resources to do this, to create this program that has touched the lives of millions of children around the world, not just in the U.S., not just in Canada, but in Australia, the U.K., Ireland.

It is worth noting that it came from a very deep place in her heart and from her own childhood.

What can you tell me about how this works and about the families who get the books from the Imagination Library in Canada and around the world?

Essentially, a community needs to join. This isn't a program that an individual parent can sign up for.

In the broader context, they have to raise some of the funding to support the collection, but once the community has done that, [families can then] register. And they start to receive a book every month, from when they're one month old, if they sign up that early. The books are addressed to the child as well, they arrive pretty much at the same time of the month, [and] we have heard so several stories and had letters from so many parents talking about how their child knows on the calendar that their book is coming today — they look forward to that.

I can remember going to my first meeting … and thinking, “Oh, this is going to be all the books that publishers don't want.” And what blew me away was it was actually the opposite of that. These are award-winning books that come to the table.

They try to include Canadian authors and Canadian illustrators. Canadian stories like Carson Crosses Canada, one of my favourite books, is part of the collection. But there's also On the Trapline or Métis Like Me, highlighting the work of Indigenous authors, Indigenous peoples and their stories.

Notably, there's a lot of time and effort that goes into even just the selection of the books from a developmental perspective, but also from a cultural perspective. And in Canada, as you know, this was very essential to us.

What stands out to you about the way she connected with kids?

I still vividly remember the launch in Canada and her sitting on one of those little chairs with the kids gathered around her, and the animation that she brings to every story that she reads. And I think that's what the children enjoy. I mean her voice is just so engaging as a storyteller. And the children just connect with that. They love listening to that. And one of the things the program has done in the past is record her reading these stories — and families can even access those and listen to her reading stories like The Little Engine That Could and other stories. So I think she really connected with young children.

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What will you remember most about this amazing star?

That she gave millions of children the gift of loving stories. It's a gift that lasts an entire lifetime for children. And for me, just such a privilege to be part of that legacy.

Audio produced by Magan Carty and Enza Uda