TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Free Books Exercise Imagination

Tribune photo by SCOTT ISKOWITZ

Justine Cohen reads "Mine-O-Saur" to her children, Spencer, left, Nadia and Reece, as part of the Imagination Library program.

ADVERTISEMENT

By KAREN HAYMON LONG, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 27, 2008

TAMPA - TAMPA - TAMPA - Little Reece Cohen is just 16 months old, but he's already building his personal library.

Three of his books were mailed to him free. They came from the Imagination Library, a nonprofit project launched by singer Dolly Parton. Reece's mom, Justine Cohen of New Tampa, says as little as he is, her son loves getting books in the mail, and sits on her lap pointing to birds and balls as she reads.

Starting today, every tot in Hillsborough County will have the same opportunity. Imagination Library will send every child born on or after Sept. 1, 2006, a free book each month until they turn 5. Parents of any income level need only sign up.

Hillsborough County is the newest of 750 communities in the United States, Canada and Great Britain participating in Imagination Library. It's made possible by Parton's Dollywood Foundation, plus eight local organizations: the Children's Board of Hillsborough County, the Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County, Healthy Start Coalition, Hillsborough County Head Start/Early Head Start, Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative, the Hillsborough County School District, U.S. Postal Service-Tampa, and United Way of Tampa Bay.

The Dollywood Foundation, based in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., buys the books from Penguin Books at a discounted group rate, packages them and mails them. Recipient communities pay the foundation for the books and mailing costs.

Foundation President David Dotson says that thanks to the discount, the program costs only about $30 a year per child, or $150 for five years' worth of books.

The value goes way beyond the cost, though, says Justine Cohen, who taught second- and third-graders before becoming a full-time mom when her older son, Spencer, was born four years ago.

"I worked in two schools. One in a lower socioeconomic area, and one in an upper-middle class one. The difference between those was tremendous. The poorer schools and poorer families didn't have any books and the kids ate them up in school," she said. "Any kid would like books, even if they can't read, just because of the pictures and listening to the words."

Cohen, who had Reece enrolled in an Imagination Library pilot program, has already registered her month-old daughter, Nadia, in the expanded giveaway.

Parton never had children, but, according to Dotson, she says that "God didn't let her have children so all children can be hers."

She started Imagination Library in her hometown, Sevierville, Tenn., in 1996 and began launching it in other communities five years later. It grew from there. Dotson estimates the program will have shipped 12 million books come March. Of that, 9 million books were mailed out in 2007 and 2008.

"We touched a nerve someplace," Dotson says. "We spend most of our time responding to people who want to do it. We don't have to sell it."

The Hillsborough County initiative will be one of the largest. About 18,000 babies are born here every year.

To offset the costs, the county coalition has started a fundraising campaign. United Way of Tampa Bay President Diana Baker says it's a wonderful investment.

"What does it take for kids to gradate from high school? One thing is early literacy. We found this program incredibly exciting. It raises the dialogue in the community about early literacy and kids get books in their own homes. They will have their own kid library by the time they are 5."

To donate, go to www.unitedwaytampabay.com/imaginationlibrary, or look for donor mailers in county libraries.

The coalition also plans companion programs, including workshops to teach parents better ways to read to their children.

Parton, who has won seven Grammy Awards, donates more than $1 million a year to the program, Dotson says.

Because children get the books in the mail addressed to them, they're often the ones who initiate reading, he says. That spills over to their parents. Surveys have shown that two-thirds to three-fourths of the parents in the program say they read significantly more than they did before their children began getting the books.

The foundation plans to conduct long-term studies to see whether children getting the free books start preschool better prepared than others.

That would be good to know in Hillsborough County, where 35 percent of children enter school without skills to learn to read, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Reporter Karen Haymon Long can be reached at (813) 259-7618 or klong@tampatrib.com.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT