What started off a blogger’s appeal for books to fill understocked Gozitan libraries has grown into a private project with more than 600 books arriving from all over the world.
For the past three months, Maureen Saguna, 37, has been receiving boxes and boxes of children’s books after she made a public appeal through her blog about the state of Gozitan libraries.
“So many Maltese have sent me books, together with people from the UK, US, Australia, Spain and Puerto Rico,” Ms Saguna said.
It all started in July, when she noticed a photo posted on Instagram by one of her online friends, Nuria Perez, showing her two children reading in a Madrid bookshop.
Ms Saguna had noticed the dearth of children’s books, especially for her daughters: Maia, eight, and two-year-old Robin.
She posted a comment saying: “You are so lucky to have proper bookshops and libraries! Our libraries are shamefully bare and the ones that are stocked are full of old, tattered books.”
This comment prompted a reply from an American woman, Anna Kelso, who said: “Let’s start a children’s book drive for the library where Maureen lives via your blog. This could be a new and better kind of global warming.”
The idea was picked up by Ms Perez, who wrote about it on her blog www.theadventuresarchive.com and asked people who were interested in donating to contact her and she would put them in touch with Ms Saguna.
Now her Xagħra flat is filled with opened boxes of books and the promise of many more on the way as people are constantly telling her that they have books to send.
And what is she going to do with all these books? After painstakingly sorting through all the literature, Ms Saguna put aside a batch for the Victoria primary school.
“The headmaster is a very dedicated man and had been very encouraging about the project so I gave him some books,” she said.
Another 300 will be given to the public library in Victoria to be redistributed according to the needs of the various libraries in other Gozitan villages and towns.
The remaining batch will be used for Ms Saguna’s new and “completely unplanned” project – the opening of a private library for children.
“This wasn’t my original intention as the idea was to donate the books to the library in Victoria,” she said.
Her original plan did not foresee around 600 books, but more like 20 or 30.
“It grew to something much larger than I ever thought it would and so many people suggested setting up a private library,” Ms Saguna said.
Tight on resources, not only financial but also for space and people to help, she was approached by one of Maia’s teachers, Christabel Attard, who supported the idea.
Another teacher, Elizabeth Mizzi, offered a room in her Għarb home to set up the library.
“We have already cleared with the authorities, including the planning authority, that it is possible and we want it to be a non-profit library,” Ms Saguna said.
The initial plan is to open it once a week, on Saturdays, when children are not at school, starting from next year and extending the opening hours in summer when they have more free time.
The project will be run by a number of fundraising activities.
“We want it to be a fun place for children to come and read – there will be activities such as puppet shows and craft sessions related to a particular book or author, for example. We want to instil the love of reading in children.”
Ms Saguna has taken this project to heart and feels the weight of all those books – literally.
“I was overwhelmed by the response – it’s a huge responsibility as people want to see these books on the shelves and I feel I owe them this.”
Those interested can visit www.islandfairy.com or send an e-mail to Ms Saguna at islandfairy@hotmail.com.