On a recent morning at Poetic Republic Coffee near San Antonio’s Southtown, parents gathered with their young children for stories and conversation. Little ones looked at picture books while their parents talked over coffee at the monthly Morning Book Club, a gathering built around a simple idea: helping families make reading part of everyday life by providing a time and space for it.
The event also introduces parents to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which mails free, age-appropriate books to children from birth through age 5.
For Faith Lowry, the program has become a familiar part of family life. Her 3-year-old daughter, Tatum, recognizes the Imagination Library sticker on the back of each package and knows the books inside are for her.
“We call them our Dolly books, and it's like Dolly is sending a Christmas present once a month,” Lowry said.
Tatum gets excited when the books arrive. The family reads together at bedtime. One of her recent favorites was a book about forts.
Lowry first enrolled her daughter in the program when the family lived in Washington, D.C. After moving to San Antonio, she transferred Tatum’s enrollment to the local affiliate.
“Getting them for free is a huge service to all of us,” Lowry said.
The monthly deliveries help families build home libraries, but organizers say the larger goal is to encourage parents and children to read together — and to make books accessible to more young children across San Antonio.
Building a home library
The Imagination Library mails a free book each month to enrolled children from birth through age 5. The books are selected for children’s developmental stages, building a collection that grows along with them.
In San Antonio, the local affiliate began enrolling children in April 2025. The nonprofit was incorporated in 2022, received its 501(c)(3) designation in 2024 and became an official local affiliate that year.
Alexa Volpe, the organization’s president, said community partners helped determine where the need for early literacy resources is most pressing.
“We have chosen to enroll in ZIP codes that have been identified by our partners as areas that have the greatest need for investment in literacy and services around books for children,” Volpe said.
The goal is to eventually make the program available to every eligible child in San Antonio. Volpe said more than 100,000 children ages 5 and younger live in Bexar County.
Families can choose between a predominantly English collection and a bilingual one. Children enrolled in the English collection also receive some bilingual books throughout the year.
Volpe’s commitment to bringing the program to San Antonio grew out of her own experience as a parent.
After her first child was born in Georgia, someone gave her a flyer about the Imagination Library at the hospital.
“Right in the hospital ward after my son was born,” said Volpe. “And at the time, I didn’t know what this flyer was about. I'd never heard of the Imagination Library before.”
She signed up her son, and books began arriving at home every month. The first was "The Little Engine That Could."
Volpe remembers the early books as sturdy board books with bright colors, large words and tactile pages — books designed for babies and toddlers to handle.
As her son grew, the books became more complex, introducing him to classics, Caldecott Medal winners and newer bestsellers.
“I was blown away by how curated and loved this whole collection felt,” Volpe said.
When she moved to San Antonio with an infant, she assumed the program was available locally. When she discovered that it was not, she felt compelled and inspired to work toward establishing the local affiliate.
When reading becomes a routine
At this monthly meeting of the Morning Book Club at Poetic Republic Coffee, reading is hands-on. Along with story time, children can color and explore activities designed to make the gathering welcoming for young readers.
Jessica Knight, a member of the Imagination Library of San Antonio’s advisory board, helps oversee the books themselves, including their stories, illustrations and ordering.
At a recent gathering, children listened as Knight read "Coat of Many Colors," based on Dolly Parton’s song, and "I Am a Rainbow." For the youngest children, Knight said, the readings are kept short because the event also includes activities like coloring and making paper objects, activities that the children can do with parents to help develop language. “They're pretty short lengths of books, just because they're busy,” she said.
The gathering offers families another way to experience books together outside the home. The monthly book deliveries provide the material, while events like this give parents and children a chance to share stories in a community setting — to engage and talk and allow new activities to create new opportunities for building language — and for reading aloud together.
Research supports the importance of those shared experiences. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents and caregivers read aloud with children beginning in infancy. Shared reading can support language development, early literacy and social-emotional development while strengthening relationships between children and their caregivers.
Volpe said the books are selected by early childhood education experts and tailored to children’s ages and developmental stages. Some books for older children also include prompts to help parents talk with their children about what they are reading.
“It's not just any book that they get,” Volpe said. “It's really tailored for their age and for the family at that time.”
She hopes the books will also encourage families to explore other literacy resources, including public libraries and story times.
“Maybe that prompts them to visit their library more often,” she said. “Maybe they'll show up for a story time at their library and get a book read by one of their librarians and pick up a couple extra books.”
Books are a beginning, not a complete solution
Delivering books directly to children’s homes can remove one barrier to reading: the cost of building a home library. But access to books is only one part of supporting early literacy.
The Imagination Library of San Antonio works with community organizations, including Family Service Association, AVANCE and the San Antonio Public Library, to connect families with books and other resources.
Volpe sees the program as a foundation that can complement those organizations’ work with parents and young children.
“We feel like we're kind of providing that foundation so that they can exert all of their different programs that they have to support parents,” she said.
A monthly book delivery cannot, on its own, address every challenge affecting children’s language development and school readiness. Families may also need opportunities for meaningful interaction around books, guidance on early childhood development and access to other community services.
Volpe said improving literacy in San Antonio will require multiple efforts working together.
“The reality is that I think what this program does — it's not just one program that's going to move the needle on literacy for children in San Antonio,” she said. “I think it's the culmination of a lot of work being done on different fronts.”
Volpe said Imagination Library San Antonio serves 26 San Antonio ZIP codes and has mailed more than 12,000 books to families. Those figures reflect the program’s reach to date, but its broader goal is to expand access to more eligible children throughout the city.
More than books
Dolly Parton’s death in August 2026 brought renewed attention to the program and the legacy behind it. For Volpe, that legacy is about more than distributing books. It is also about bringing people together around a shared commitment to children.
For Volpe, Dolly Parton's spirit still guides the work of Imagination Library San Antonio.
“She gives us the opportunity here in our local communities to build community, to communicate with each other, to find out who's working on literacy, who's making sure our children have books, who's making sure that our children are reading.”
This story is part of a Texas Public Radio series examining family literacy as a potential solution to San Antonio’s literacy challenges. Through the experiences of families, educators and local organizations, the reporting examines effective interventions, barriers to access and a closer look at programs showing promise for improving literacy outcomes across generations. Learn more at tpr.org/literacy
Support for the series comes from the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems.
Five nonprofit resources for early childhood book giveaways in our area
1. Imagination Library of San Antonio
Age range: Birth to age 5
Mails free, age-appropriate books to enrolled children each month.
Website: imaginationlibrarysa.org
2. San Antonio Public Library Foundation — Literacy Caravan and Born to Read
Age range: Varies by program
Distributes children's books through community events, schools, hospitals, medical clinics and other partner organizations.
Website: saplf.org/programs
3. San Antonio Public Library — Little Read Wagon
Age range: Birth to age 5
Offers early literacy outreach, activities and resources for young children and their caregivers.
Ask about: Free take-home books, community events and visits to family-serving organizations.
Website: Early Childhood Services at San Antonio Public Library
4. BookSpring
Age range: Birth through pre-K for its Early Books for Me program
Provides books to children through partnerships with child care centers and other community sites.
Website: bookspring.org
5. United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County — HOPES
Age range: Families with children ages 0–5
Supports community-based early childhood and family programs. A 2025 initiative distributed more than 550 children's books to Little Free Library locations across Bexar County.
Website: United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County
If you have information about a group or other initiative promoting family literacy, email us at letters@tpr.org.
