Ms Saguna’s two children, eight-year-old Maia and two-year-old Robin. Photo: George Saguna

When Gozitan blogger Maureen Saguna posted a comment on photo-sharing site Instagram about understocked Gozitan libraries, she had no idea she would kick-start a worldwide book collection drive.

An avid bookworm, Ms Saguna, mother to Maia, 8, and Robin, 2, always felt the shortage of children’s books at the Gozitan public libraries.

“I started going to the public library when my eldest daughter was born. I was broke and couldn’t afford to buy her books so we would go there and I would sit her on the floor and read to her,” she said.

“The libraries are underfunded and the books have remained the same over the years. Many are heavily taped, have missing pages or aren’t taped in chronological order – the state is pitiful,” she added.

It all started a few weeks ago, when Ms Saguna, 37, noticed a photo posted on Instagram by one of her online friends, Nuria Perez, showing her two children reading in a Madrid bookshop.

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.”

People from the UK and the US have offered to send over books – there is so much goodness out there

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 theadventuresarchive.com and asked people who were interested in donating books to contact her and she would put them in touch with Ms Saguna.

To give it a personal touch and put a face to the drive, Ms Saguna put up a photo of her two beautiful girls and started blogging. It quickly went viral as people reposted and wrote about it on different social media. Having loved books all her life and even worked in a bookshop, Ms Saguna is upset at the dearth of bookshops and children’s books in public libraries.

“It’s like we are forgotten – why are Gozitan libraries treated differently from the ones in Malta, which are regularly stocked?” she said.

The response was overwhelming. “People from the UK and the US have offered to send over books – there is so much goodness out there,” Ms Saguna said.

The drive “snowballed” and the first packages with books started arriving at Ms Saguna’s Xagħra home last week. “Right in front of me I have a package with 11 books and another one that I haven’t opened.”

She got in touch with the Gozo public library to inform them about the initiative for the books to be distributed throughout the island.

Not only did she start the book drive through Instagram but Ms Saguna met many people who became her friends.

“The internet can pose many dangers to children – it’s a sort of blessed curse – but it provided me with many great friends and a platform for this initiative and I’m very grateful.”

Ms Saguna appealed to people to donate at least one book.

Those interested can contact Ms Saguna on www.islandfairy.com or e-mail islandfairy@hotmail.com.