Free books for kids with The Ohio Governor’s Imagination Library

The Ohio Governor’s Imagination Library is working to improve early childhood literacy across Ohio by joining forces with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to provide books to babies and young children in Ohio.

They are providing books to children each month starting at birth in the hopes that every student enters kindergarten ready to succeed. The goal is to ensure that kindergartners all begin school with over 60 books in their home.

The need to read

A 2019 study conducted at The Ohio State University has estimated that young children whose caregivers read them five books a day enter kindergarten having heard about 1.4 million more words than kids who were never read to.

Being raised in a literary-rich environment exposes children to more and diverse vocabulary. This may better prepare them for kindergarten and learning to read.

Literacy is one of the greatest predictors of future success. With over 36 million American adults considered functionally illiterate, it’s time to reduce those numbers for future generations.

To Enroll in Imagination Library

The program is available to children from birth – until age 5, regardless of family income level. Every household can (and should) participate. To enroll, fill out this form on the The Ohio Governor’s Imagination Library website. Children will receive their first book about 8 weeks after enrollment, and will receive a book monthly until their 5th birthday.

Every child’s first book is “The Little Engine That Could” and the last book is “Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!”

A panel of early childhood literacy experts chooses books based on developmental needs of particular ages through the first five years of life. The book list changes, so siblings will likely receive different books at the same age. 

My daughter has been receiving the books for over a year through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, and I love the diversity and uniqueness of the books we’ve received. We have hundreds of children’s books in our home, and we’ve only received a duplicate book once. 

sources

Journal Reference: Jessica A. R. Logan, Laura M. Justice, Melike Yumuş, Leydi Johana Chaparro-Moreno. When Children Are Not Read to at Home. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 2019; 1 DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000657

Study source: Ohio State University. “A ‘million word gap’ for children who aren’t read to at home: That’s how many fewer words some may hear by kindergarten.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 April 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190404074947.htm>.