Diversity, inclusion, and representation matter.

Our free books go to infant and preschool children living in Johnson County, regardless of the children’s race, gender, creed, disability, nationality, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.  By providing books that depict a range of lives and experiences, we empower children to empathize and connect with other races, genders, cultures, and languages.

The books we send are chosen by the Dollywood Foundation’s panel of early childhood literacy experts.  The panel specifically looks for books that demonstrate “regard for diversity of people, their roles, culture, and environment,” and the books that depict human beings intentionally show a variety of skin tones, hair types, income levels, and cultures.  The First Strawberries, for example, is Cherokee folk tale; Last Stop on Market Street is about a child who visits a soup kitchen with his grandmother; and Hair Love celebrates Black hair.  Two books for each age level each year are in both Spanish and English, and children who are visually impaired receive books in Braille.