With his library on wheels, retired schoolteacher brings books to tiny villages in Italy

Antonio La Cava believes that books are essential and that every child should have access to them.

That's why the retired Italian schoolteacher has turned a small van into a library on wheels, called the Bibliomotocarro. La Cava drives to rural villages in the southern region of Basilicata so kids living in these small communities can have books, too. "Without a book, so often the child is alone," he told BBC News. "And who can be next to him if not a book, a beautiful page of literature."

In the remote village of San Paolo Albanese, there are 270 residents, just two of whom are elementary school age. When he pulls into places like this, the kids run up to the Bibliomotocarro, eager to see what's in the traveling library that day. La Cava came up with the idea 20 years ago, he said, because he was "strongly worried about growing old in a country of non-readers." Bringing books to children is the right thing to do, he added, as "carrying out such action has a value, not only social, not only cultural, but has a great ethical meaning."

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