The Imagination Library

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library puts books into the hands and hearts of children across the world! The Imagination Library partners with Read 2 Lead in Poweshiek County, Iowa to provide a hand-selected, age-appropriate, high-quality book each month to registered children from birth to age five.  FREE!

You Can Help!

Do you know a newborn in Poweshiek County? Share this link with the new parents (after you congratulate them, of course) as the link will take them directly to our Dolly Parton Imagination Library sign up webpage! AND, help them begin building their child's in-home library!  
Register Your Child for The Imagination Library

Raising-A-Reader

The Raising A Reader (RAR) program was developed in 2020 by two former AmeriCorps members and is now sustained by Read 2 Lead.  Partnering with the Unity Point–Grinnell OB department, Poweshiek County Public Health, and local clinics, RAR encourages and supports literacy from the very start by putting age-appropriate books into the hands of expecting mothers, newborns, infants and their families.
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Included in the book distributions are quick reading tips, science-based research excerpts, a Dolly Parton Imagination Library registration form, and Drake Community Library’s 1000 Books Before Kindergarten information. 

We ensure doctors, nurses (like these AMAZING ones pictured) and clinic staff are loaded up with age and developmentally appropriate books for the families of newborns! Books like this one are provided in bilingual, Spanish-English formats.
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About Raising-A-Reader in a bookmark format with QR code. This code links to the Imagination Library for parents to register their child (between the ages of 0-5) for the Imagination Library. Check out the quick tips for shared reading on the back! 

Download "About Raising-A-Reader.pdf"

Books For MICA

Partnering with Mid-Iowa Community Action (MICA), Read 2 Lead ensures families and children have fun books to encourage reading and early literacy at home. We partner with the local Head Start classroom to provide books children read in class AND can take home to further their learning alongside their families.

Through special volunteer partnerships with quilt making groups, such as Grinnell-Newburg Highschool's Life Responsibilities Class and 4H groups like Deep River Helping Hands, our earliest learners (Birth - five) are provided with their own, personalized "Literacy Care Package".
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Kindergarten Kickoff

The Kindergarten Kickoff project was first inspired by the R2L Board's desire to provide continued literacy support and encouragement to young learners in the Grinnell area as they transition to kindergarten. The project officially launched in 2021 thanks to the organizational and leadership support of the Grinnell Education Partnership AmeriCorps VISTA members.
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Kindergarten Kickoff brings together local businesses and organizations from the area to provide a summer fun with literacy and STEM themed gift bag to every preschool graduate who resides in Poweshiek County (or within the community school districts of Grinnell-Newburg, Brooklyn-Guernsey-Malcolm (BGM), or Montezuma).

The bags are given in celebration of preschool-aged children graduating from preschool and preparing for kindergarten. Eligible children receive a reusable Read2Lead tote with several STEM themed books for summer reading along with STEM themed activities AND other healthy play and literacy supports such as chalk, crayons, markers, Play-Doh, bubbles sunglasses, and a beach ball. 
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