Imagination Library RVA
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has arrived in the City of Richmond!
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Read to Them is the RVA affiliate of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. As an affiliate of the program, we help provide a free, age-appropriate, high-quality book each month to registered children from birth to age five. These books are mailed directly to the child’s home to create a gifting experience that makes books exciting and shows the child someone is thinking of them.
“The single most significant factor influencing a child’s early educational success is an
introduction to books and being read to at home prior to beginning school.”
- National Commission on Reading
Sign up your child to receive free books!
Do you have a City of Richmond zip code? Children from birth to age five living within the City of Richmond can receive one free, high-quality book each month.
Enroll your child today!
If you are a parent or legal guardian of a child under age five, we invite you to enroll your child at your child's home address.
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If you have several children under age five, each child can be enrolled separately and will receive their own books.
The Richmond Flying Squirrels Read!
Here at Imagination Library RVA, we are HUGE fans of our Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball team. In 2023, we were honored to be a part of their Salute to Country Music Queens event where Imagination Library’s own Dolly Parton was recognized and honored. The Flying Squirrels continued their support of ILRVA when three team representatives offered to record their reading of a few of DPIL’s Blue Ribbon books.
Matt Frisbee
It’s storytime with Matt Frisbee (#13), a pitcher for the Richmond Flying Squirrels! You’ll enjoy hearing Llama Llama Hide & Seek by Anna Dewdney and illustrated by JT Morrow as Matt shares Llama Llama’s effort to find Fuzzy Llama. You’ll be just as surprised as Matt at the book’s fun ending that reveals who else was hiding from Llama Llama!
Evan Gates
Evan Gates (#33) took a time out when he was a pitcher for the Richmond Flying Squirrels to read us Birding for Babies: Backyard Birds, written by Chloe Goodhart and illustrated by Gareth Lucas. Evan currently enjoys birds found on the west coast as he now pitches for the San Francisco Giants.
Blaine McCormick
Come and explore the world with us as Blaine McCormick, the Media Assistant and Corporate Sales Executive for the Richmond Flying Squirrels, reads Caminantes Curiosos (Wonder Walkers) in Spanish. Blaine, who has been with the Flying Squirrels for three years now, shares the fun of exploring this Caldecott Honor winner by author and illustrator Micha Archer.
"Approximately 85% of brain development happens in the first five years of life, so reading during these critical years significantly increases a child’s lifelong capacity to learn."