A very special package is on its way to a child in Yap State.
Inside is a new book chosen for the child’s age. On the outside is the child’s own name. It is one of hundreds of Young Island Readers packages making their way to island families this month—but it is also the 30,000th book sent through the program.
Young Island Readers is Habele’s partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. It gives children across Yap State the opportunity to receive a new book every month, at no cost to their families, from birth until their fifth birthday.
A home library, one book at a time
Each book belongs to the child who receives it. Month by month, those individually addressed packages can become a personal library of 60 books before the child begins kindergarten.
That means 60 opportunities for a parent, grandparent or older sibling to sit down with a child, open a book and explore a story together. It is how reading becomes part of family life—and how children learn that books, stories and ideas belong to them.
Young Island Readers began on Yap Proper in 2020, following encouragement from Yap early-childhood educator and mother Stella H. Talgumai to find a way to put books directly into young children’s homes.
The program reached its first major milestone in November 2021, when the 1,000th book was mailed. In 2022, Young Island Readers expanded to Yap’s Outer Islands. Now, less than six years after the first books were sent, the total has reached 30,000.
Reaching children across Yap State
Getting a book to every child across a widely scattered island state takes more than putting a stamp on an envelope.
Books for families on Yap Proper are sent to their post office boxes. Those bound for Ulithi, Fais and Woleai travel by plane. Books for children on other Outer Islands continue their journey in ship mailbags.
The program has grown through the efforts of Yap families, educators, students, health workers and delivery partners. It is sustained by donors who believe that distance should never determine whether a child has books at home.
Dolly Parton’s legacy lives on in Yap
This milestone comes during a moment of sadness for readers around the world. Dolly Parton died on August 25 at the age of 80.
Parton established the Imagination Library in 1995, inspired by her father, who never had the opportunity to learn to read and write. Her wonderfully simple idea was that young children should have books of their own, delivered directly to their homes.
What began in one Tennessee county became an international literacy movement. The Imagination Library has now gifted more than 300 million books and mails more than three million each month.
In Yap, Dolly’s legacy arrives one package at a time—sometimes crossing the ocean by mail, plane and ship before reaching a child’s home.
Thirty thousand books is an exciting number. But the real measure of the program is found in thousands of quieter moments: a child opening a package bearing their name, a family turning the pages together, and a young imagination coming alive.
We are proud to carry Dolly Parton’s vision forward across Yap State. The 30,000th book is both a celebration of what Yap’s families have accomplished and a promise to keep turning pages together.
Help us begin the next chapter
Parents and guardians of children under five in Yap State can enroll a child in Young Island Readers.
You can also learn more about the program and help make the next 30,000 books possible.
Thank you to every family, educator, volunteer, delivery partner and donor who helped Young Island Readers reach this remarkable milestone.
