A SMART COMMUNITY INVESTMENT…
BE A CHILD’S READING HERO!
Rosie’s Reading Tasmania is on a mission to create a culture of reading for our little Tasmanians.
To inspire every Tasmanian to be a reading hero, we share Rosie’s story, who decided to address her own limited literacy when she became a parent - we all have it in us to share book time with a child. As a constant prompt to read, we deliver Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to our little Tasmanians, which gifts a high-quality, age-appropriate book every month from birth to age 5. This proven program sees children start school with a love of reading, big imaginations and a hunger to learn.
IT COSTS JUST $9 PER MONTH PER CHILD TO GIVE THE LIFE CHANGING GIFT OF READING
Every cent of every dollar - We are a volunteer, Tasmanian organisation. Overheads and staffing costs have been covered by philanthropic partners. This means that every cent of every dollar donated goes toward book deliveries. You don’t even pay a transaction fee!
Promoting Shared Reading - Rosie’s Reading adds a new layer to Imagination Library, focused on motivating all Tasmanians to be a child’s reading hero. We work with a broad range of stakeholders to integrate our libraries into Child and Family Learning Centres, Launch in to Learning programs, Libraries, and anywhere reading is taking place to echo the reading of books already in their homes.
High Frequency - books are delivered every single month which acts as an ongoing prompt to parents/caregivers to read as often as possible with their child - ideally every day!
Proven and effective program - Imagination Library has delivered over 300 million books globally. The impact has been studied over years and was recently presented at the World Literacy Summit with almost 90,000 participants in the survey! Children in the Imagination Library are more likely to be school-ready, to have 35% more books in their home (over and above the books the Library gifts them), and read more often due to their love of reading.
Lean model - Our strategic partnership with United Way Australia enables us to deliver this program at a significantly reduced cost. The $9 per child per month includes a professional book selection committee, agreements with publishers, printing of the high-quality book, delivery to the child’s mailbox, the automated book ordering system, professional evaluation and more.
HELP US FUND AN ENDURING LEGACY…
change lives, underpin futures.
DONATIONS from $9
You can make a one-off or ongoing donation to help us expand the gift of Imagination Library to more little Tasmanians. The faster we raise funds, the sooner we will reach all 28,000 families in Tasmania.
You can make a one-off donation or set a regular payment. Just $9 a month can change a child’s life.
$54 delivers the library for 6 months
$108 covers 12 books and months for a child
$540 covers 6 children for a full year!
*All donations above $2 are tax deductible and every cent of your donation goes toward book deliveries.
LOCAL SPONSORSHIPS
With the help of the ABS, we can forecast the number of books likely to be needed over a ten-year horizon in a region and therefore the cost of activating a community. As an example, Rotary Central Launceston are funding the Ravenswood community through their annual golf day.
Sponsor an existing region, or pledge to help us open a new area with sponsorships from just $2640.
STate sponsorshipS
Don’t have a specific area you’d like to sponsor but would like to help us achieve our statewide mission of making the Imaginatiion Library available to all 28,000 little Tasmanians?
Statewide sponsorships start from $5400. We would love to hear about what you would most like to see and help to align your investment with that outcome.
HOLD A FUNDRAISER!
If you would like to see Imagination Library in your local community, let us know. We would love to collaborate with you to create a fundraiser that can help to fund your community. Funds raised in a local region, are able to be allocated to that specific area or you can provide us a general donation, that will go toward book delivery.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
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Each year, an independent local Australian committee selects a special booklist of age-appropriate and culturally diverse books. This committee is aware of the importance of localising the books, so the booklist is Australian, with many well-known Australian titles, including indigenous titles, that have Australian English spelling. i.e., Color is Colour, and Mom is Mum.
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We’re working with partners right now to get our local systems in place. But in short, when a baby is born they will be offered the chance to register their child and will receive their first book. That registration will come through to Rosie’s Reading and our volunteers will update that record and put the order through to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. A month later the first book will arrive and continue every month until the child is 5. Each book comes with a tip sheet created by specialists to help the parent or carer get the maximum benefit from using the book with their child.’
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There’s more to this program than just the reading. Giving a child pride of ownership, offering a child the chance to get excited each month when that gift arrives allowing them to build a relationship with books being an exciting gift. In addition, research also shows that recall is better when we read on a physical page.
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Yes. The program in Australia is tailored for Australians by United Way Australia and only through our partnership with them are we able to have professional selection, printing of the book, tip sheets added, the book delivered and offer wraparound support for just $9 per month per child.
The books are selected here from Australian printers and publishers (other then select UK and US books), tip sheets are created and printed in Australia and the packages are distributed and delivered by Australia Post.
The $9 per month covers all of that.
The Dollywood Foundation provide the book ordering system and their support, but funds do not go to the US. Without the support of United Way and its donors, we couldn’t deliver this program at such a low cost. -
Yes. We will be working with local partners including schools and libraries to offer support for parents who may have literacy challenges. This way we can also help parents who may have low reading ability.
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It’s often thought that a lack of reading only happens in poorer households but that’s not always true. A lack of reading happens for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes parents think they’re too busy, sometimes they just forget, some think it’s the school’s job to teach a child to read. This is a community challenge and as they say “it takes a village to raise a child”,
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The program is free to families and caregivers. Rosie’s Reading is working with community and business partners to raise the funds to keep the program running. The cost for us to deliver the books is $9 per month per child which is a small investment in the future of our state, however with 28,000 children aged up to 5 across the state, it will take a combined effort to ensure
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Currently there are around 28,000 children aged 0-5 in Tasmania. It costs $9 per child per month to deliver these awesome books to each home. That means that in 5 years when the program is full, we’ll need to raise just over $3 million per year. We will be measuring results, and hope that by that time, government and business will continue to chip in to keep the program running, after all, literacy is proven to save the government money. As Dolly would say “You’ve just got to try.”
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Not yet, but we’re working on it. We can still offer a receipt through our platform, but our DGR (Direct Gift Recipient) status from the ATO is in process now.
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Rosie Mostogl was Rick’s Mum (the President of Rosie’s Reading Inc). She didn’t have great literacy skills after a pretty bumpy childhood, but becoming a parent proved to be a catalyst for her to polish her reading, and books were a very important part of the household. Rosie passed away in 2022 and this charity has been set up to give a warm hug to all of Tassie’s Kids from Rosie through the gift of reading.
HOW imagination library HELPs
PRIDE OF OWNERSHIP
These books are delivered to the child with their name on it. Something that is theirs that they can take pride in.
INFANT BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
A baby’s brain develops more quickly during the first 1000 days than at any other time of life. It helps to build the ability to focus and concentrate and build emotional skills.
EARLY BONDING WITH PARENTS
Reading provides a parent a chance to connect with their child, to snuggle while they hear their parent’s voice and builds a level of security and resilience.
HELP BROADER COMMUNITY ISSUES
Poor literacy is associated with dropping out of school, decreased workforce capacity, decreased work productivity, lower earnings, and welfare dependency and is linked to crime, poor health outcomes and social isolation.
BE READY FOR KINDERGARTEN
A child's language development begins well before they enter school, heavily influenced by their home learning environment. Evidence shows that regardless of income, children from “language rich” home environments can bridge the word gap that puts them behind their peers when they start school.
PROMPT READING FREQUENCY
Even homes with mid to high levels of education can get busy. The more regularly we read the more we make the most of those early years to learn more words, tap in to curiosity and to be inspired. Having books sent monthly sets the tone of a ‘reading household’ and acts as a timely prompt.
Australians are reading less every year and this is a problem for children. We want to create a culture of reading, to see more books being picked up more often and to spark imaginations in our young people!
WHY IMAGINATION LIBRARY?
“It’s the plasticity of the brain that you are building through reading to the child early. What I see are children who are creative and clever and capable, but haven’t been read to before school, and then you start teaching them in kindergarten and year 1 they don’t get it because they haven’t had the opportunity of being read to. So many kids in the class don’t have any phonological awareness and the Imagination Library unlocks the treasure box of the code to English and provides a level playing field.”
— Emily Press, Hillvue Primary School Early Childhood Educator
“Each time a book arrives I’m reminded that my community cares about my child, and that the investment of reading daily will result in higher chances of success in his future”
- Imagination Library Parent
“When it comes to the Imagination Library, the biggest winner is that the children are coming to us (school) with book knowledge; the text is powerful (the language around the text) and the language development hasn’t happened if they are not being read to. The oral language development they can see in the book is helping their cognitive development as we discuss the book.”
- Lynette Grimes, School Instructional Leader
“Our legal system needs to deal constantly with people who may have found themselves in trouble with the law. In so many cases where crime is involved, we hear of people who have not had a good start in life. Many may have struggled with learning that can be linked to poor literacy. Poor literacy leads to poor educational outcomes which leads to poor employment outcomes and that in turn leads to poor socio-economic outcomes in our communities. If we can help children, in their formative years, to read and learn in order to succeed, we are able to change the trajectory of a child's future to becoming a valuable contributor to society.”
- Brett McGrath, President,
Law Society of NSW
DONATE $9 OR
ADOPT A REGION.
EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS, AND WE WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT WE SPEND IT WISELY.
THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF ILLITERACY IN TASMANIA.