Bedtime is getting the Dolly Parton treatment!
On Monday, the country music legend, 74, and her Imagination Library announced a new weekly video series called “Goodnight with Dolly,” for which Parton will read bedtime stories to her tiny fans around the world.
Kicking off on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET, the initiative hopes to help parents tuck their kids in at night as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) forces families to self-isolate, practicing at-home learning and working their 9-to-5’s from home.
“This is something I have been wanting to do for quite a while, but the timing never felt quite right. I think it is pretty clear that now is the time to share a story and to share some love,” said Parton in a press release. “It is an honor for me to share the incredible talent of these authors and illustrators. They make us smile, they make us laugh, and they make us think.”
Over the course of the next 10 weeks, Parton — who calls herself “the Book Lady” in regards to Imagination Library, which she started in 1995 — will read children’s books to “focus on comforting and reassuring children during the shelter-in-place mandates,” according to the press release.
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The “Jolene” singer will read such titles as The Little Engine That Could, Llama Llama Red Pajama and two of her own children’s book releases, I Am a Rainbow and Coat of Many Colors.
Imagination Library is an international book-gifting program that delivers free books to kids from birth until they begin school in order to inspire education and creativity.
According to its official website, the organization has shipped nearly 134 million books to families in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and the Republic of Ireland.
In an Instagram video message on Friday, Parton told her fan base to “keep the faith” during the coronavirus pandemic, explaining that she seeks to spread the “light” during the dark times.
“I think God is in this, I really do,” she said in the clip. “I think he’s trying to hold us up to the light so we can see ourselves and see each other through the eyes of love. And I hope we learn that lesson. I think that when this passes we’re going to all be better people.”
Added Parton: “I know that I have a positive attitude about it, as negative as it seems to be right now. So just keep the faith, don’t be too scared. It’s going to be alright. God loves us.”
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