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Missouri to Stop New Imagination Library Applications in 2026

8/26/2026

30 6 Full Breakdown

Summary

Dolly Parton's Library

Singer Dolly Parton's Imagination Library continues delivering free books to children across the United States.
The program has gifted over 330 million books worldwide, averaging more than three million each month.
North Carolina has distributed over 21 million books since 2017, reaching 75,000 Wake County children.
Missouri will stop accepting new applications after July 1 2026 because of budget cuts.

Summary

Reading Program Boosts

Program children are nine times more likely to be read to four+ days per week, a 2025 study found.
The same research showed participants had significantly higher early-reading skills, especially among low-income families.
A United Way Australia thesis on Tamworth found children were read to longer, owned more books, and gaps closed.
The study’s dataset covers 86,000 families, the world’s largest collection on shared-book reading.

History

Historical Context

President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 Economic Opportunity Act created Project Head Start, which in 1965 rolled out to 500,000 preschoolers across 2,500 communities under the Office of Economic Opportunity. The program’s nationwide reach and federal funding set a precedent for later large-scale literacy drives such as state-level early-reading initiatives, prompting policymakers to revisit budget priorities.

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Dolly Parton's Library

Singer Dolly Parton's Imagination Library continues delivering free books to children across the United States.
The program has gifted over 330 million books worldwide, averaging more than three million each month.
North Carolina has distributed over 21 million books since 2017, reaching 75,000 Wake County children.
Missouri will stop accepting new applications after July 1 2026 because of budget cuts.

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