The stay-at-home mandates amid the COVID-19 pandemic have been particularly stressful for parents with young children.
School schedules being thrown out of whack, compounded with how to ease any fear or worry, is the kind of stress celebrities have been aiming to quell by reading bedtime stories.
Josh Gad has been live-streaming himself reading classics such as Hooray for Diffendoofer Day and The Giving Tree. Jennifer Garner and Amy Adams teamed up to create the charity Save With Stories, tapping the likes of Lupita Nyong’o, Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Evans, and Ellen DeGeneres to read children’s books in order to raise funds and awareness for kids impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
And now Dolly Parton is adding her dulcet tones to the trend with her new story-time series, Goodnight with Dolly.
Through her nonprofit Imagination Library, Parton will read a different bedtime story over the span of 10 weeks, including favorites such as The Little Engine That Could, Llama Llama Red Pajama, and Last Stop on Market Street.
“This is something I have been wanting to do for quite a while, but the timing never felt quite right,” Parton said in a statement. “I think it is pretty clear that now is the time to share a story and to share some love. 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.”
Parton is kicking off her series April 2 with The Little Engine that Could. Additional titles are below:
- There’s a Hole in the Log on the Bottom of the Lake, by Loren Long
- I Am a Rainbow, by Dolly Parton
- Pass It On, by Sophy Henn
- Stand Tall Molly Lou Mellon, by Patty Lovell
- Violet the Pilot, by Steve Breen
- Coat of Many Colors, by Dolly Parton
- Max & The Tag-Along Moon, by Floyd Cooper
- Last Stop on Market Street, by Matt de la Peña
- Llama Llama Red Pajama, by Anna Dewdney
Goodnight with Dolly premieres April 2 at 7 p.m. ET on Imagination Library’s YouTube channel.
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