Northumberland Foster Carers Praise Dolly Parton Book Scheme After 300 Million Gifts
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Aug 27
Northumberland Foster Carers Praise Dolly Parton Book Scheme After 300 Million Gifts
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Aug 27
Summary
Northumberland foster carers said Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has boosted speech and reading for children in care, with one carer calling the monthly deliveries “just amazing.”
Barbara Hubbard, a carer for more than 10 years, said under-fives in her care received a free book each month to keep, helping children with speech problems and one child with special needs read at an age-appropriate level.
In Northumberland, the county council automatically sends books to eligible foster carers, and social worker Leigh Finlay said the books had been transformational for children who often had little prior experience of sharing books.
The scheme, founded in Tennessee in 1995 and launched in the UK in 2007, gives one book a month to children under five and has distributed more than 300 million books worldwide, including more than 7 million in the UK.