Mat-Su Imagination Library

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is … FREE in the Mat-Su!
... thanks to Best Beginnings and local donations.

It sounds almost too simple to be true, but by reading regularly with your children during their early years – from birth! – you are giving them the biggest boost toward success they will receive.

Mat-Su Imagination Library will send free, age appropriate books to your mailing address every month, until your child turns 5 years old. Local donations provide the funding for books and shipping. Donate.

Research all over the country shows positive results in terms of Imagination Library improving readiness for school.

Enroll online or mail us a completed official registration form.

For change of address: You MUST first complete a "Change of Address" form at the post office, then click 'Change Address' button above.
If you have forgotten your username and password, e-mail us your new address.

Making a Journal
Haley loved her "My Baby Blue Jays" book that came in the mail. It gave her parents, Jackie and Quentin McCubrey, an idea of how to do a science journal about spring. After reading and discussing the book, they talked about how photos could be used for illustrations and Haley asked if she could take some pictures and make a book, too. They took Haley outside on a nature walk and she took pictures of signs of spring around their house with a digital camera. Her grandfather downloaded and printed out the photos. The journal was made from white sheets of paper stapled together with a cover. Haley cut out the photos and decided to set the book up in the "Brown Bear, Brown Bea,r What Do You See?" format. So the first page had the beginning of the sentence "In the spring I see ……." and then Jackie and Quentin wrote what she told them under each photo. Haley will be 4 years old this summer and she loved the activity. She can now read the book by herself and has shared it with her cousins.

There’s more the Mat-Su Imagination Library does…
Mat-Su community volunteers organize enrollment events, family fun sessions, coordinate with local agencies, and raise funds to sponsor Mat-Su children in the program. Plus, maintain a current email address with us and receive free activity sheets and reading tips for your Imagination Library books.

Join our team!
We’d love to have you on our team. Mat-Su Imagination Library needs volunteers to help raise funds, organize enrollment and family events, and to help spread the word. Email us.

Mat-Su families love Imagination Library ...
I LOVED the previous workshop!!! It was FANTASTIC!!!
Thank you, Linda! Your hard work is a tremendous asset to kids in the Valley! Both Ella and Ian (3 1/2 and 23 months) LOVE their books. Ella "reads" to us every day with the books she has memorized. Over in the Meadow and I Am a Rainbow are two current favorites. Going to the mailbox is quite a treat!
~~Laura

Jackie writes:
Haley, turned 3 this June, and I made Bun Bun! She loves it and now wants a balloon when we go to the store today. As you know, "If you give a girl a Bun Bun, she will have to have a balloon..........etc." We continue to love the book and she now tells the story to her grandfather as she shows him each page. When we go to the library this week for story time we will look for more Polacco books.

Thanks again for all you do.
Jackie and Haley

"My little guy loves his August gift, A Place called Kindergarten. He goes to kindergarten next year so it really made his day. He even memorized the rainbow song shared in the book!!! Thank you!!" ~ Ashley Kelly

"Thank you so much for coordinating this program. I'm sure you know what a difference this program can make in the lives of children whose parents do not buy them books. My daughter was so surprised when we read her first book, the little engine. I enjoyed it too since I had not seen it since I was a child. She now knows 'I think I can, I think I can' like the little engine that could. The pictures in the book are great for discussion. She enjoys 'reading' the book back to me after I've read it to her and I can tell that she paid attention since she can repeat some of the lines verbatim. Thanks again for participating in this program and for giving kids the gift of reading in the MSB (like I always say, you're never bored if you're a reader)." ~ The Simeroth Family - Elena, Tony, and Skyler Jade

"Dream More, Learn More, Care More, Be More." -- Dolly Parton