medicine
A Dolly Parton book brought music into her home
The house had no music. A book about a song changed that.
A copy of Dolly Parton's children's book, Coat of Many Colors, did something years of quiet coaxing could not. It brought music into a home that had none. Sue Spencer's daughter is autistic and, for years, could not tolerate sound. No radio for the dishes. No playlist for cleaning. The family received the book through Parton's Imagination Library, and when Spencer read it aloud, she mentioned it was based on a song. Her daughter, then curious, asked to sing it. Then she asked to hear the recording. "A while later, I had a 7-year-old belting out 'Jolene,'" Spencer wrote on Threads. That girl is now 12 and builds her own playlists, each with a little Dolly in it. Parton launched the free book program in 1995 in Tennessee, inspired by her father, who could not read or write. It has since gifted more than 250 million books. She once called it her proudest achievement.