Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

What's in the box: One age-appropriate children's book picked by the program and mailed to the registered child each month.

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is not a typical subscription box. It is a literacy program that mails a free book each month to registered children from birth until age five. Dolly Parton started it in 1995 for children in her home county in East Tennessee. It now runs in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Dolly Parton and local community partners share the funding, so families pay nothing. The catch is availability. You can only sign up if a local partner runs the program where you live, so use the availability check on the site before you count on it. If your area is not covered, the site explains how a community can start a program, but that takes real effort and is not a quick signup. The program picks the books, so parents cannot choose titles or themes. Many families like it that way: a surprise book addressed to their child arrives each month, and over five years it adds up to a small home library. The site also has parent resources, a Spanish version and a bilingual book program. If you want to choose the books or get extras in the box, look elsewhere. If you want a free, long-running way to get books into a young child's hands, it is hard to beat.