The NWT Literacy Council has been workin’ 9 to 5 to get more books in the hands of preschool children, thanks to a partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
This week marks one year since the program was first made available to all children aged up to five across the NWT.
In the past 12 months, 115 children have signed up to receive monthly age-appropriate books in the mail. In that time, 1,000 books were delivered that helped build up at-home libraries.
“We hear from families [about] how excited their children are,” said Katie Johnson, program director at the NWT Literacy Council.
“Every child who’s participating receives their books around the same day, depending on on the postage. It’s kind-of an exciting day in the community, because once one kid has gone to the mailbox or to the post office and gotten their book, then other kids in the community know about it, and they’re asking, ‘Oh, can I go get my book yet?'”
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Each country that participates in the Imagination Library has its own book list, refreshed every year to ensure it is demographically representative. Canada’s list includes a minimum percentage of Canadian and Indigenous authors.
This year, Freddie the Flyer – a biography for children about Freddie Carmichael, the first Indigenous commercial pilot in the Arctic – has been added to the list.
“Not only is this the first year that we’ve had the program in every community, but there’s actually a book from here that’s on the list as well,” said Johnson.
The program, says Johnson, is a cost-effective one since it costs only $50 per registered child per year, including shipping.
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“There’s no other program that we can get that many books in the hands of children for such a low price, and that’s just because the Dollywood Foundation is buying the books on such a mass scale that they’ve been able to pass that savings to us as the local partner,” said Johnson.
In a three-year partnership with the NWT Literacy Council, the Diavik and Gahcho Kué mines support the program in nine communities.
The mines have provided funding for up to 300 children in those communities, so Johnson is hopeful that more families will sign up.
“Especially for communities that don’t have bookstores or access to purchasing books, this is just such a great opportunity for families to increase their home library,” she said, “and also for children to be reading and getting so much exposure to books in those really crucial early years.”
Families with children aged up to five can sign up for the Imagination Library here.
