Families with young children across Davis County can sign up to receive a free book in the mail every month through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

The Davis Education Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Davis School District, announced Friday, Oct. 9, that it is serving as the local partner for the national program. Children from birth through age 5 are eligible. Each month, an age-appropriate book arrives at the family's home at no cost.

The program has been operating in parts of Davis County since early 2025. Bryce Peterson, a Bountiful family doctor and past president of the Centerville-Farmington Rotary Club, brought the Imagination Library to Utah as a volunteer project. He told the Farmington City Council on April 15, 2025, that he had enrolled 202 children in the program's first three months.

Every enrolled child's first book is "The Little Engine That Could." The last, sent near a child's fifth birthday, is "Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!"

Peterson told the council that 50% of a child's language development occurs by age 3 and 85% by age 5. He cited a 30% increase in kindergarten preparedness in communities where the program operates. Peterson cited those figures at the council meeting; the underlying studies were not identified in the minutes.

As of an April 2026 Davis County newsletter, the program was available in Centerville, Farmington, Kaysville and Fruit Heights. The Davis School District's Friday, Oct. 9, announcement describes it as open to "Davis County families" broadly. The district did not specify which additional cities are included.

In Davis County, children enrolled in the Head Start program or those experiencing homelessness already receive a free book each month through the Imagination Library, according to Fox 13.

The program costs $32 per child per year, funded entirely by community donations, according to the Davis County newsletter. The Davis Education Foundation's fundraising campaign, called "Give Reading," covers 12 books for one child with a single donation.

The district aims to enroll 2,000 children this year, Fox 13 reported on Aug. 25. That report came the same day Dolly Parton died at age 80 in Nashville.

"A child who owns books becomes a child who reads," Kara Toone of the Davis Education Foundation said in the Aug. 25 Fox 13 report. "There are children in Davis County who have a shelf at home because of her, and there are hundreds more we haven't reached yet."

Families can enroll or donate at the Davis Education Foundation's early literacy page. The foundation's office is at 130 N. Main St. in Farmington and can be reached at 801-402-4483.