Donate 1000 books to Italian primary schools. It is the challenge launched by Nicola Pesce, writer, editor, entrepreneur, «Kindness influencer. Wednesday 3 April will be at Barbarossa bookshop in Benevento (via delle Puglie 13) to present his latest book, “The taste of apricot”, published by Mondadori. A part of these books will be delivered in Benevento on the day of the presentation, to the students ofPietro Giannone comprehensive institute – San Filippo complex.
Cult author of books for children and novels for adults published by Mondadori and Npetoday Pesce launched his most important and ambitious initiative: he will donate 1,000 books to the students of one hundred Italian elementary schools, shipping them entirely at his expense to anyone who requests them.
“Ten books for one hundred schools”. This is the goal of Nicola Pesce, who began donating books almost by chance in 2020, on the occasion of the release of his second work, Edith’s Breath. «It happened that I found myself at the publisher’s stand presenting the book and signing copies» recalls Pesce. «How many times has it happened that children of all ages stopped amazed and enraptured, but they didn’t have the money to buy it or they were hastily taken away by their parents. Often it ended up being me giving it to him. On that occasion I discovered that donating books warms my heart and I don’t know how to deprive myself of this great little joy! declares the author.
So donating books has almost become a mission for Nicola Pesce. In the last four years the author of “The taste of apricot” has donated a whopping 20,000 books to schools, public libraries and associations, to the point of earning the nickname of «Santa Claus of books».
The next batch of texts will directly supply the libraries and reading rooms of hundreds of Italian primary schools. The idea was born last year in a school in Turin. «They told me that a teacher usually gathered the little students in the school garden and read them one of my books» says Pesce. «I then decided to surprise him, I showed up at school and read a chapter to the kids. In my time, when I was little, there was no such thing as a library or reading room at school. But what a beautiful reading room that school had! A small room measuring five by five metres, full of books, drawings and puppets! My heart split in two when I saw my humble novel The Fox Who Loved Books on a lectern. I knew I didn’t deserve such an honor! And so it occurred to me to give the books to these school reading rooms, to these libraries in elementary schools throughout Italy. It took me a while to get a thousand illustrated children’s books, but now I have them all in my house, trembling and asking me every day: “Who will you give them to?”».
«You will be the ones to take them to school. You can keep one as a gift from your trusted Nicola” Pesce wrote in his latest post on. «If the school doesn’t have a reading room, what are you waiting for to create one in your children’s school? I’ll put the first ten books there.”
There wasn’t even time to launch the initiative before photos and requests poured in from all over Italy. The first books will start in April, for an initiative that quickly became viral and which makes Pesce unique in the Italian publishing panorama: a writer, an editor, an influencer and an out-of-season Santa Claus who, instead of gifts, gives books, culture and kindness. These days, it’s already a revolution.
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