A Springfield man who publishes books is offering free digital books to children.
Timothy LaDuke said he made the decision after learning that Missouri lawmakers cut funding for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library from about $6 million to $2 million. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education runs the program in Missouri. He'll email free age-appropriate books to children from birth to age five each month who are unable to sign up for the Imagination Library due to those cuts.
LaDuke recently started MeekDuke Books, which offers books for those who are neurodivergent. He’s written and published multiple books.
"I figured, why is nobody stepping in to help? You know what I mean? If we can do this, and it's literally costing me nothing — copies of my books I've already written — why would I not?" he said.
LaDuke said he struggled with dyslexia and ADHD when he was growing up. According to LaDuke, his daughter is autistic so he knows the need for books that can be read by all children. She received free books through the Imagination Library and LaDuke saw the impact it had on her.
He said he started his business around six months ago. He has around 30 books, and MeekDuke Books has re-formatted some old classics into a dyslexic-friendly format.
"We use differentiating font sizes to help you anchor and work your way through the page without getting lost in the lines," he said. "We use cream colored paper. It just helps on the glare. You know, any kind — we're constantly doing studies, trying to figure out anything that will help us reach other readers that have issues reading."
LaDuke said he couldn’t read a book until he was 14, and he doesn’t want that to happen to any other child. He said the idea for MeekDuke Books was sparked when he was spending time behind bars due to what he called “some choices I made as a teenager.”
"And sitting in that cell, I did a lot of thinking, did a lot of writing, did a lot of studying," he said. "Landed myself a job in the prison library, and it's kind of been my life since. They were my escape from a truly horrible world that I didn't want to be in. And now they're helping me build a life I don't want to escape from."
LaDuke said books were his way out of the life he came from, and the books he writes for children are about acceptance and finding peace with who they are. He believes all children should have access to books.
"I don't know where I'd be if it wasn't for books, you know what I mean? Given the life that I came from, books were literally my way out," he said. "They open up worlds, and they create possibilities for these children to where they don't even have to make those choices. You know, it's — I wish I would have had them as a kid. I wish somebody would have had those books for me."
He said he’ll keep writing new books to send for free to young children as long as the need is there.
Families may sign up at meekdukebooks.com.
