Sep 22, 2026 · 26 min · 9 segments
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Every Monday, 19 News anchor Brian Duffy interviews the people shaping the present and future of Northeast Ohio. This week’s edition of “19 Newsmakers” features the Dolly…
I'm with Joan Spurl, the director of the Imagination Library, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library at the Literacy Co-op.
It is, and I think it's because there's nothing that can rival the power of a book coming in the mail every month to a child as a gift to get them excited and motivated to read, interested in books, learning and reading.
One out of Colorado, it was a three year peer reviewed study where they could look at children of similar or identical demographics and they could see that the child enrolled in Imagination Library had stronger language and literacy skills and was more ready for kindergarten than the child not enrolled.
There was also a groundbreaking international study that was done more recently around the world, the largest data set about a book gifting program.
Again, they just had all of these skills, a much stronger foundation than children not enrolled.
The research is clear on that, that that a print book read by a real parent is what will help create the wiring in the brain for reading and writing.
They need real interaction with real people, real objects, and real books in order to become successful readers later on.
right and it goes without saying that reading uh in literacy is the foundation for everything in school i mean we're not just talking about oh can you read a book and you know write me a short paragraph and and i mean every subject that you're going to be involved in in school that is the basis of learning and being successful in that class and we we talked about this during the break which was astounding to me, and I've never heard this, and I do read a lot, a ton, and I read, I'm very interested in learning new things, but our brains are not wired for reading and writing.
I'm with Joan Spurl, the director of the Imagination Library, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library at the Literacy Co-op.
It is, and I think it's because there's nothing that can rival the power of a book coming in the mail every month to a child as a gift to get them excited and motivated to read, interested in books, learning and reading.
One out of Colorado, it was a three year peer reviewed study where they could look at children of similar or identical demographics and they could see that the child enrolled in Imagination Library had stronger language and literacy skills and was more ready for kindergarten than the child not enrolled.
There was also a groundbreaking international study that was done more recently around the world, the largest data set about a book gifting program.
Again, they just had all of these skills, a much stronger foundation than children not enrolled.
The research is clear on that, that that a print book read by a real parent is what will help create the wiring in the brain for reading and writing.
They need real interaction with real people, real objects, and real books in order to become successful readers later on.
right and it goes without saying that reading uh in literacy is the foundation for everything in school i mean we're not just talking about oh can you read a book and you know write me a short paragraph and and i mean every subject that you're going to be involved in in school that is the basis of learning and being successful in that class and we we talked about this during the break which was astounding to me, and I've never heard this, and I do read a lot, a ton, and I read, I'm very interested in learning new things, but our brains are not wired for reading and writing.
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