Nicola Pesce: The Kindness Influencer Donating 1000 Books to Italian Elementary Schools

Donating 1000 books to Italian elementary schools. This is the challenge launched by Nicola Pesce, writer, publisher, entrepreneur, "Influencer of kindness." On Wednesday, April 3, he will be at the Barbarossa bookstore in Benevento (via delle Puglie 13) to present his latest book, "The Taste of Apricot," published by Mondadori. A portion of these books will be delivered right in Benevento on the day of the presentation, to the students of the Pietro Giannone comprehensive institute - San Filippo branch. A cult author of books for children and novels for adults published by Mondadori and Npe, today Pesce has launched his most important and ambitious initiative: he will donate 1,000 books to the female and male students of one hundred Italian elementary schools, shipping them entirely at his expense to anyone who requests them. "Ten books for a hundred schools." This is Nicola Pesce's goal, who began donating books almost by chance in 2020, on the occasion of the release of his second work, The Breath of Edith. "It happened that I was 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 captivated, but they did not have the money to buy it or were hurried away by their parents. Often it ended up that I was the one giving it to them. On that occasion, I discovered that donating books warms my heart and I cannot deprive myself of this little great joy!" the author declares. Thus, donating books for Nicola Pesce has almost become a mission. In the last four years, the author of "The Taste of Apricot" has donated a whopping 20,000 books to schools, public libraries, associations, to the point of earning the title of "Santa Claus of books" from some of the main national newspapers. The next batch of texts will directly supply the libraries and reading rooms of hundreds of Italian elementary schools. The idea was born last year in a school in Turin. "They told me that a teacher regularly gathered the little pupils in the school garden and read them one of my books," Pesce recounts. "So I decided to surprise them, 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 a reading room at school. But what a beautiful reading room that school had! A tiny room of five meters by five, full of books, drawings, little puppets! My heart broke 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, the idea came to me to donate 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 at my house, quivering and asking me every day: 'Who will you give them to?'. "You will be the ones to bring them to school. One you can keep as a gift from your trusted Nicola," Pesce wrote in his latest post. "If the school doesn't have a reading room, what are you waiting for to create one in your children's school? I'll provide the first ten books." No sooner had the initiative been launched, than photos and requests rained down from all over Italy. The first books will depart in April, for an initiative that has quickly gone viral and that makes Pesce unique in the Italian publishing landscape: a writer, a publisher, an influencer, and a Santa Claus out of season who, instead of gifts, donates books, culture, and kindness. In these times, it's already a revolution.