BEAVERCREEK — Ohio first lady Fran DeWine celebrated 20 million books mailed to Ohio children from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Ohio by hosting a book reading at the Greene County Public Library in Beavercreek on Thursday.

“When Mike first ran for Governor, I knew I wanted to bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to Ohio so every family could have access to the program’s high-quality, age-appropriate, free books,” DeWine said. “With financial support from the Ohio General Assembly, our program has grown from only being available in pockets of Ohio to currently reaching 70 percent of households with children under the age of 5.”

DeWine read to children from the Imagination Library’s “Coat of Many Colors” book that Dolly Parton gifted the first lady when she came to Ohio in 2022 to celebrate the statewide establishment of her Imagination Library Program. DeWine also created a craft and helped children assemble their own “coat of many colors.”

In 2019, DeWine was instrumental in establishing the statewide nonprofit, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Ohio, and building a coalition of Local Program Partners to support the program. Since then, 20,680,284 Imagination Library books have been mailed to children across Ohio.

Thanks to the Dollywood Foundation, books from the Imagination Library are available at a deeply discounted rate.  With investments made by the Ohio General Assembly, Ohio’s Local Program Partners, and donors across the state, the program remains available at no cost to families.

Currently, 411,228 children are participating in the program, totaling 62 percent of the state’s eligible children or 70 percent of households with eligible children. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Ohio mails children one high-quality, age-appropriate book each month until his or her fifth birthday. Any child between birth and age 5 can sign up by visiting Ohioimagination library.org.