Our Mission
Making books a Berkeley birthright.
We believe every child should own an excellent personal library before Kindergarten.
Our affiliation with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library allows us to offer their program delivering a new, age-appropriate book every month to any child under age 5 living in Berkeley, California.
Books are a gift to the child.
We love Imagination Library because the books are so well selected. They are brand new, beautifully produced, addressed to the child. It is such fun! Who doesn't love getting a gift in the mail? Did you ever enjoy a magazine or book club subscription? Your child would.
Imagination Library books are intentionally chosen to reflect a rich diversity of people and environments. The Selection Team does year-round research, searching out the best, award-winning and innovative titles to add, and/or getting Spanish Bilingual editions of both old and new titles. They know it is vital that every child see themselves reflected in books they own.
You could buy these books yourself (at a much higher cost than we pay), but you cannot buy the excitement and pleasure a child experiences when their book with their name on the label arrives -- nor can you buy the research, time, and care the IL Selection Team puts in to the title list.
Imagination Library delivers priceless fun, priceless motivation to read and share books.
If you do have a generous book-buying budget, consider donating the $25 a year for the 12 books a child receives; you'll still have plenty left in that budget to shop with. We recommend Mr. Mopp's Books, the only book store in Berkeley dedicated to children's books. It's an enchanting little store, a pleasure to visit and shop in with your child.
