Tustin Kids Are Getting Free Books in the Mail, Thanks to a Local Bookstore’s Foundation

TUSTIN, Calif. — August 24, 2026 — Starting this fall, young children across Tustin will find a little extra mail waiting for them each month: a free book with their name on it. Arvida Book Co., founded and run by local bookstore owner and community leader Sam Robertson, has signed on as the city’s first Local Program Partner for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, bringing the world-renowned early literacy program to Tustin for the very first time.

Every child enrolled in the program, from birth to age five, will receive one high-quality, age-appropriate book delivered to their home each month, completely free of charge. The goal is simple but far-reaching: build a love of reading early, strengthen kindergarten readiness, and give every family in Tustin, regardless of income, a home library of their own.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, children under five make up about 6.6% of Tustin’s roughly 77,843 residents, which puts an estimated 5,138 young children in the city eligible for the program once it is fully underway.  The program is open to any child that lives in the City of Tustin or North Tustin.

For Robertson, the partnership is a natural next chapter for work already underway. Through the Arvida Book Co. and its foundation that is fiscally sponsored by The Tustin Community Foundation, she and her team have given away thousands of books to children and adults across Tustin, and along the way, they kept running into the same lesson.

“At the heart of both organizations is the belief that books should be accessible. A family doesn’t have to qualify based on income; they just sign up, and every month a book arrives at that child’s home with their name on it,” said Sam Robertson, founder of Arvida Book Co. “I’m still in shock that Dolly is gone. She’s a true hero of ours because she didn’t just wish the world could be better, she decided to make it better and then did it. Her impact will live on forever, and I think the world would be a better place if more of us tried to be a little more like Dolly. Bringing this program to Tustin feels like a way of carrying that forward.”

The launch has already drawn strong community and civic support, including backing from Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento and Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, along with grant funding from the Tustin Community Foundation. Tustin City Councilmember Lee Fink has been assisting in gaining funding and promoting the program.

“My grandmother read books to me at home, and when she couldn’t be there she recorded a cassette tape of her reading books.  That’s what set me up to succeed at public schools in Tustin, UC Berkeley, and NYU Law School.  My wife and I read every day with our 3-year old daughter.  I want to make sure that we put books in the hands of every kid in Tustin so that their grandparents, parents, or siblings can read to them and make sure they have the same chance I had growing up here,” said Lee Fink, Tustin City Councilmember.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library will be presented at the Tustin City Council meeting on September 1, marking the official launch of the program in Tustin.

To get notified when enrollment opens, families can pre-register now at ImaginationLibrary.com. The “Check Availability” page will allow interested families to sign up via email, which will notify them once the program is live in Tustin.

Launched in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is the world’s leading early childhood book-gifting program. As the flagship initiative of The Dollywood Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Imagination Library has gifted more than 300 million free books to children across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.

The program is made possible through a unique partnership model in which funding is shared between The Dollywood Foundation and hundreds of Local Community Partners. Today, the Imagination Library mails over 3 million high-quality, age-appropriate books each month directly to children’s homes. Every enrolled child receives one book per month from birth to age five at no cost to their families. Inspired by her own father’s struggles with literacy, Dolly created the Imagination Library to spark a lifelong love of reading and to inspire all children to Dream More, Learn More, Care More, and Be More.

Arvida is committed to cultivating a thriving community of readers and writers, broadening access to literature, and igniting meaningful conversations and the exchange of ideas. Arvida serves as a vital literary hub and one of Orange County’s few true “third places”—spaces beyond home and work where community and connection flourish.   The Arvida Book Company Foundation is fiscally sponsored by The Tustin Community Foundation.