Who Belongs? A Content Analysis of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library 2022 Kindergarten Corpus

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to describe the explicit and implicit depictions of reading and cultural characteristics in the 60 books that were distributed by Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (DPIL) to millions of American children from birth until kindergarten entry in 2022. DPIL's book‐gifting intervention is inspired by research correlating the number of books a family owns with children's educational success. Increasing book ownership is intended to promote joyful shared reading between adults and children to increase kindergarten preparedness. Shared reading improves vocabulary, book affinity, belonging, connection, and shared understandings. Importantly, shared understandings can include shared biases. Stereotypes and erasures surrounding race, gender, class, ability, and literacy are common in expertly curated picture book collections. The current content analysis of this collection of DPIL books focused on representations of reading, books, race, gender, class, and ability in all parts of the books. Both explicit and implicit representations were documented. The frequent implicit representations of racial diversity could be potentially transformative after decades of White character domination in picture books. However, disability and non‐dominant gender and sexual identities were erased. Only able‐bodied, gender‐normative, and heteronormative characters were represented. Further, reading and family reading were neither plentiful nor joyful; they were rare and outcome oriented. Furthermore, race intersected with class and literacy. Apparent inconsistencies between such erasures and Dolly Parton's public advocacy for and acceptance of all identities are discussed. Results suggest that both DPIL and US residents must advocate for adequate, accurate, and authentic representation in the picture books gifted to children nationwide.