Seventeen-month-old Elliott Busa eagerly waits as a new package, addressed directly to him, arrives at his doorstep. He already knows what’s inside, and he can hardly contain himself as the anticipation of tearing into this latest parcel builds.

Nestled inside is a book, one more prized jewel for the book-obsessed Elliott to add to his growing collection.

The volume didn’t just appear out of thin air; it came courtesy of The Berkeley Baby Book Project (BBBP), an East Bay nonprofit that collaborates with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to provide free books every month to children ages 0-5 in the Berkeley, Richmond and San Pablo areas.

Elliott’s mother, Julie Parker, is a second year law student, and she was initially anxious about how best to keep Elliott busy while she juggled student-mom life. She didn’t want to overload him on screen time, but thankfully, BBBP was ready with a more literary alternative.

Parker signed up for the program online, and within a matter of weeks, Elliott received his first book, Watty Piper’s classic “The Little Engine That Could.” It quickly became one of his favorite possessions, kickstarting a passion that would ultimately consume the young boy.

“He reaches for a book more often than a toy,” Parker said.

Early exposure to books is a crucial stepping stone in preparing children for academic success, said BBBP Executive Director Seena Hawley, who worked as an elementary school teacher in San Jose for 13 years before becoming a Berkeley school bus driver in 2007.

Over the years, she began to notice an issue: “I was meeting children all the time who didn’t have books in their home.”

So in 2008, she began handing out free books to kids on her bus. Then, wanting to make a bigger impact, she formed the BBBP in 2012, and officially partnered with the Imagination Library Program in 2015.

Parton’s group provides the books, and Hawley’s group handles everything else, from outreach and enrollment to shipping, sending nearly 60,000 books to more than 3,300 children to date.