You can never get enough books into the hands of children.

· DPIL is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality and developmentally appropriate books to young children.

· After a child is enrolled, a book is mailed to the child’s home once a month, until he or she turns 5.

· All young children in Rowan County from birth to age 5 are able to participate in the program.

· After launching in the mid 1990’s in Dolly’s home state of Tennessee, the program has expanded and now reaches countries including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Ireland. 

· Since its inception, the DPIL program has gifted over 330 million books! (as of September 2026)

· DPIL was near and dear to Dolly’s heart. She created the program as a tribute to her father, who she said was “the smartest man she had ever known but she knew in her heart that his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams.”

· DPIL is a perfect fit with the work of Smart Start, so in late 2017, the NC General Assembly chose the Smart Start Network to take the program statewide. Since then, over 24 million DPIL books have been sent to young children across our state.

· DPIL is implemented in all 100 counties, and NC was the second state (after Tennessee) to take the program statewide.

· As of September 2026, Smart Start Rowan has served over 7,000 total children through the DPIL program since late 2017.

Link for enrollment:

https://www.smartstart.org/dolly-partons-imagination-library/registration-dolly-partons-imagination-library-2/