In the Alachua County neighborhoods where third-grade reading scores are lowest, nearly 2,000 children now get mail addressed to them: a free book, every month, from birth to age five. It arrives before kindergarten does — because that's when the reading gap opens, and that's when it can still be closed. Here's the proof, in numbers.
Every shelf is a neighborhood, and together the eight shelves hold all of our readers — each book is 1% of every child enrolled. The fullest shelves are exactly where they should be: East Gainesville and the zip codes where the need is greatest. Hover any book to meet the numbers behind it.
The bookshelf shows where our readers are. This chart shows how many we're still missing: of every eligible child under five in each zip code, how many are getting books? Mature Imagination Library programs reach 60% of eligible children — that's the line we hold ourselves to, in public, in every neighborhood we serve.
Our footprint isn't where signups were easy — it's where third-grade reading scores told us to go, one zip code at a time. Explore the map below: the need and our reach, side by side.
Less than a tank of gas. Less than a single new textbook. Because the Dollywood Foundation prints and mails at national scale, $27 becomes twelve books on one child's doorstep — and twelve chances for a parent and child to read together. The math is simple enough to memorize, and we hope you will.
We surveyed 121 parents and caretakers of enrolled children. Their answers are the outcome we're really after: more books in the house, more reading out loud, more time together.
When our youngest readers age out of the Imagination Library at five, Gainesville Thrives doesn't. Tutors and mentors from local congregations, campuses, and partner organizations walk alongside students from kindergarten through high school graduation.
Somewhere in one of these eight zip codes is a child whose first book hasn't arrived yet. For $27, it can — every month, for a year, with their name on the envelope.