What Dolly Parton Taught Me About Dreaming

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has been building steam since 1995. Any child registered in the program can receive a free book each month from birth until age five.

The legend herself: Dolly Parton

Active in 5 countries (US, Canada, Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom), the Imagination Library sends 3 million books to children every month, including bilingual and braille books.

As of 2026, the Imagination Library has delivered books to over 300 million children.

300 million!

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Program

          It has been a private goal of mine to have The Adventures of Captain Marco series books as a part of the Imagination Library. That goal is beyond a long shot, for boring publishing reasons not important here. Just know, the odds are against it.

          But Dolly knew that the seeds of dreams can be found between the pages of a book.

          The day Dolly left us, Unfurmiliar Territory reached 1,000 units sold. A humble milestone but a profound one for the flagship book in this independently published series. Hopefully that’s 1,000 kiddos laughing and gasping, curled up in a cuddle puddle or stretched out on their bedroom floors.

          I mostly just hope that my small contributions to storytelling, dreaming, connection building, and joy, would make Dolly proud, wherever she is.

(left: in the CBS6 Virginia This Morning studio; center: with the worlds best illustrator and artist genius behind The Adventures of Captain Marco, Emmett; right: speaking at Playdate, a children's museum) 

Lesley O’Brien

Author, The Adventures of Captain Marco series