Ohio is about to unveil its 23rd Storybook Trail, a half-mile walking path lined with child-height panels from Sarvinder Naberhaus's picture book Blue Sky White Stars, set to open at East Harbor State Park near Marblehead on September 21 at 1:30 p.m. The ribbon-cutting will take place at the park on September 21. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, East Harbor State Park offers full-hookup, electric, non-electric and ADA sites, placing the new trail within a broader campground and accessibility infrastructure. The park also offers a multi-use trail that accesses the beach, with bicycles permitted.
The new trail arrives approximately one month after Dolly Parton died on August 21 at age 80 following a short battle with cancer, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Parton considered Ohio her second state, the paper reported, and her Imagination Library has now given away more than 300 million books to children across five nations, according to its own website. The nonprofit serves children ages 5 and younger in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.
Parton launched the Imagination Library in 1995 to honor her father, Robert Lee Parton, who died in 2000. She once explained her motivation simply: her father “didn't get a chance to read and write and he was always kind of embarrassed by that,” a sentiment the Dispatch noted shaped the program's mission from the start.
Ohio's Statewide Book Push Since 2019
Fran DeWine expanded Parton's program statewide in Ohio when her husband Mike DeWine became governor in 2019, and the effort has expanded statewide. The Imagination Library of Ohio has since provided free books to more than 1 million Ohio children and distributed nearly 28 million books overall, per the Dispatch's reporting. The program is now available in every county in the state, with roughly 70% of eligible Ohio households participating.
That participation surge accelerated further after Parton's death, when Lake County saw a spike in sign-ups that temporarily slowed its enrollment website, as Hoodline previously reported. Lake County alone added hundreds of new registrants to its baseline of 7,500 children within a single week.
How the Funding Actually Works
Behind the free books sits a cost-sharing formula: local county partners cover half of the $2.60 monthly cost per child, while the state matches the rest through appropriations approved by the Ohio General Assembly, according to Ohio's Imagination Library. That 50/50 arrangement has held steady through three consecutive biennial state budgets since 2019, giving local chapters a predictable, if still demanding, funding base even as enrollment climbs.
Late last year, First Lady Fran DeWine rolled out a companion initiative inviting hospitals to enroll newborns into the Imagination Library before parents leave the maternity ward, a push the Office of the Governor of Ohio credits with helping drive statewide participation up toward 70%. DeWine has said her devotion to children and literacy is unparalleled, framing the hospital partnership as a way to make sure book delivery starts as early as possible in a child's life.
Storybook Trails Beyond the Parks
Storybook Trails Beyond the Parks Ohio now counts 22 Storybook Trails inside its state parks, plus 31 more installed at Ohio Department of Transportation rest areas and welcome centers along major highways, letting road-tripping families squeeze in a literacy stop between stretches of interstate.
Storybook Trails Beyond the Parks Ohio now counts 22 Storybook Trails inside its state parks, plus 31 more installed at Ohio Department of Transportation rest areas and welcome centers along major highways, letting road-tripping families squeeze in a literacy stop between stretches of interstate.
Globally, the Imagination Library mails more than 3 million books every month, per The Chronicle. Even with that scale and Ohio's statewide reach nearing 70%, participation isn't even across the map: populous urban counties like Cuyahoga have been the focus of targeted outreach by local library systems and United Way chapters aimed at closing the gap.
