Community event by Simpson County’s Imagination Library

FRANKLIN, Ky. – Early childhood development is a mission that is special to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, and Simpson County’s chapter is having an event to promote early reading this weekend.

At Jim Robert’s Community Park in Franklin, Simpson County’s Imagination Library is letting the community come out from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday, May 13 to let the kids burn off the steam, have a small lunch and get a free book. Getting kids to read between birth and 5 years old is something important to the organization that Dolly Parton started, in honor of her father who was not able to read himself.

Lucinda Eversman oversees the branch of the library in Simpson County, and she said statistics show that being able to read at grade level by 3rd grade heavily determines whether a child will struggle with literature in their future.

At the event will be around 30 vendors including the Simpson County Literacy Center, Goodnight Memorial Library, Simpson County Regional Collaborative and Simpson County Extension Office.

The Imagination Library in Simpson County is sponsored by 28 organizations this year and currently has 550 children registered, but Evermans said even if a child isn’t with the library they still will still get a book of their own.