#ioleggoperché returns with its eleventh edition, scheduled from 7 to 15 November, and for the first time opens its doors to all of Italy’s nurseries, expanding a community that since 2015 has already brought 4.5 million books to more than half of Italy’s schools.
“The book is not a destination, but a starting point”
Not by chance the title of the 2026 edition is A Community That Grows: after ten years, the project adds to its original goal – to establish and grow school libraries, bringing more books into schools and helping to shape new readers – “the awareness that the book is not a destination, but a starting point, so that around the new books arise opportunities for reading, activities, projects, and moments of sharing and growth.”
Focus on Calabria, Sardinia and Molise
At the same time, drawing on ten years of data, the initiative aims to strengthen its impact in areas with fewer opportunities to benefit from it. A Community That Grows, therefore, grows not only in numbers but also in its ability to reach with greater force contexts where it has been less present: “Ten years of #ioleggoperché have given us a large community and, together, a precise map of where we can do more,” stated the president of AIE, Innocenzo Cipolletta. “The data collected by our Research Office show that in some parts of the country the initiative arrived with less strength: for this reason the 100,000 books that will be donated by publishers will go this year to the schools of Calabria, Sardinia and Molise. We want to grow where it is weaker today to make it stronger everywhere. This is the same spirit with which we open our doors to all of Italy’s nurseries, because the first encounter with a book happens very early and deserves to be nurtured. It is no accident that we chose to present this edition again in a school library: it is here that donated books become reading, projects, and a community.”
The eleventh edition was unveiled in Milan at the school library of Liceo Statale Carlo Tenca: “a symbolic choice, to tell #ioleggoperché in the place that represents the heart and the result of the project, together with the students who daily experience its spaces.”
“Create new reading opportunities”
Live-streamed for schools across Italy, with moderating by Maria Iodice (author and Rai presenter) and Angelo Cattivelli (radio host), Renata Gorgani, vice-president of AIE, presented the numbers and the main innovations of the eleventh edition: “In these ten years #ioleggoperché has grown with a very concrete objective: to bring books where they are accessible to all young people – the school – and thus create new reading opportunities. This year we take a further step in this direction, addressing both the most fragile territories and a demographic group we had not yet reached, that of nurseries. We believe that access to books and reading should be an opportunity for everyone, and that the presence of books can become a springboard for imagination, empathy, and broader perspectives. Equally important, it helps reveal reading as a pleasure. The 4.5 million books we have placed in school libraries in ten years are significant, but not enough: libraries must be filled with diverse books that meet every child’s needs. From 7 to 15 November we invite everyone to take this concrete step: step into an participating bookstore, choose a book and donate it. That is how we place a essential building block in the growth of the children and young people of our country.”
Alongside #ioleggoperché, the campaign’s veteran ambassadors Rudy Zerbi and Sofia Goggia returned, renewing their support through video messages.
For the first time, moreover, an athlete from the Team Sport e Salute Illumina shared a personal testimony with the girls and boys present: Luana Pilia, former skating champion, recounted her experience and the value that books and reading can have in an athlete’s journey.
Also taking part in the campaign is Julio Velasco, volleyball coach and head coach of the Italian women’s national team.
I messaggi dei ministri Giuli e Valditara
Contribution at the launch came from the Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli and the Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara, who sent two messages for the occasion and had them read during the meeting.
In his message, Minister Giuli stressed: “This initiative, in its eleventh edition, has already brought four and a half million books into school libraries. That is a meaningful number, but what it represents is even more important. Each donated volume gives rise to a new story: it passes from hand to hand, reaching diverse readers, sparking curiosity and fueling questions. (…) A book has value primarily for the person who explores its pages, but this encounter often becomes a precious opportunity for everyone, because it transforms a compelling personal experience into an activity capable of contributing to a different model of social life. All this is encompassed in the theme chosen for the 2026 edition, “A Community That Grows.” (…) Bringing the written word to places where cultural opportunities are scarcer allows us to intervene in an inequality that affects the future prospects of communities. In this light the Olivetti Plan sits as one of the Ministry of Culture’s central action lines, aimed at aligning economic development with intellectual capital, the needs of work, and education in beauty.”
The Minister Valditara added: “Reading is a fundamental tool for personal and cultural growth: it develops critical thinking, fuels curiosity, and helps form responsible citizens. In this journey, school libraries represent essential cultural strongholds, capable of expanding learning opportunities and countering educational poverty. This year’s edition, “A Community That Grows,” reinforces this view by extending the initiative for the first time to nurseries and early childhood education services, so that the relationship with books can begin in the earliest years of life. In this light, the work of the Ministry of Education and Merit and of AIE to establish a forthcoming Protocol of Understanding is included, aimed at strengthening collaboration in promoting reading and valuing school libraries. Investing in reading means investing in freedom, in knowledge, and in the future of young people, fostering equal opportunities for growth.”
The numbers of the project’s impact
A new study by the AIE Research Office on 2,735 schools participating in the 2025 edition measures the impact. Today, one in six schools (16.3%) still does not have a school library, a share that has improved notably from 22.9% recorded two school years ago, in 2023/24. And one in five (18.6%) reports having opened one or intends to open one thanks to #ioleggoperché.
One in six schools lacks a school library
Libraries are increasingly becoming active hubs for promoting reading: over nine in ten schools (90.2%) have started or planned initiatives that put them at the center and, in 71.8% of cases, school contacts report that students borrow books even to read at home, thus taking volumes out of the libraries and into families’ daily lives.
The survey also confirms schools’ support for the 2026 edition’s choice: 80.5% of schools say they strongly or somewhat agree with concentrating publishers’ contributions in the areas that are more fragile, starting with Calabria, Sardinia and Molise.
The schools and nurseries taking part
There are 30,610 participating schools, compared to 29,216 last year: 12,868 kindergartens (60% of the national total), 11,166 primary schools (65% of the total), 5,045 lower secondary schools (61%), and 1,531 upper secondary schools (17%), for a total of 232,893 classes. In addition, for the first time from across Italy, 4,004 nurseries, for a total of over 4.4 million students involved.
The geographic distribution of registrations shows the Northwest at 28%, the Northeast at 22%, the Center at 21%, the South at 20%, and the Islands at 9%.
Participation by bookstores also on the rise
A positive signal également comes from the three regions to which publishers’ contributions will be allocated this year: school registrations in Calabria, Sardinia and Molise rise by a total of 13% compared to 2025. The increase spans all three territories, with a 10% rise in Calabria, 14% in Sardinia, and 34% in Molise, confirming greater participation in the initiative precisely in the areas chosen by #ioleggoperché this year for targeted intervention.
Participation by bookstores is also growing, with 4,135 participating outlets, up from 4,061 in 2025. There are over 110,000 twin partnerships established between schools and bookstores, the core mechanism that allows citizens to designate which school library will receive their donated book.
The #ioleggoperchéLAB-NIDI novelty
Following four years of experimentation with #ioleggoperchéLAB-NIDI, which since 2022 has involved up to 350 nurseries in the most fragile contexts of Lombardy and the provinces of Novara and the Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, for the first time #ioleggoperché has opened to all educational services for the 0-3 age group. The response has been extraordinary: 4,020 nurseries have joined, about a quarter of all nurseries in the country.
The nationwide extension is once again made possible thanks to the support of Fondazione Cariplo and fits within the Foundation’s mandate Anita – Early Childhood First, which supports the well-being of children aged 0 to 6, with particular attention to poverty and social and economic fragility, promoting growth paths and the development of educative communities.
The nurseries will participate in the campaign through donations by families and citizens in the partnered bookstores, thereby fully entering the national #ioleggoperché community. They will not, however, be included in the publishers’ contribution, which for the 2026 edition will be allocated to participating Calabria, Sardinia and Molise schools—in early childhood, primary, and secondary levels.
“Reading is one of the most effective tools for widening the horizons of the youngest, feeding curiosity and developing critical thinking,” stated Claudia Sorlini, Vice President of Fondazione Cariplo. “That is why Fondazione Cariplo supports #ioleggoperché again this year and, through the large Anita – Early Childhood First program, promotes alliances among schools, families, libraries, and local realities. Just as support for reading and nurseries is essential, so are the other actions envisaged by this challenge. Anita has begun a dialogue among museums to develop innovative practices and improve cultural offerings for early childhood: we need children to find welcoming, seating-friendly spaces in museums. Anita also supports networks across territories to identify and support 25,000 newborns and children in poverty. Interventions for early childhood must be implemented structurally, considering many factors: from potential cognitive development to the reality that some children lack the basics.”
The contest “Books That Unite – A Community That Grows”
The #ioleggoperché contest returns, open to nurseries, primary, and secondary schools registered in the 2026 edition and partnered with at least one bookstore in the territory.
The theme this year, “Books That Unite – A Community That Grows”, revisits the edition’s claim: schools are invited to tell how their own community grows – or has grown – thanks to books, involving students, teachers, families and local realities and “bringing the community into the bookstore” through original initiatives during the campaign.
Five schools will be winners, each receiving a voucher worth 1,000 euros to be spent on books at the partnered bookstore. Photos, videos and stories of the activities may be published by 22 November 2026; the rules and participation details are on www.ioleggoperche.it.
The support from the world of sport
Reading, like sport, unites, inspires and helps us grow. Once again this year the football world stands with #ioleggoperché: Lega Calcio Serie A, Serie A Women and Lega Serie B have launched the eleventh edition, symbolically bringing books onto football pitches and delivering the campaign’s message to stadium crowds. On the weekend of October 23, 24 and 25, before the whistle, players and match officials took to the field with a book in hand, presenting it to the young girls and boys who accompanied them onto the pitch. During the campaign, it will be the turn of Serie A Women and Serie C: on the weekend of November 7-8 both will bring #ioleggoperché onto the fields, while Serie C will renew the initiative on November 14-15, with team captains and referees donating a book to the young companions who accompany them, reinforcing the call to participate in donations.
The collaboration with Sport and Health is renewed, engaging athletes from various disciplines in promoting #ioleggoperché. Some athletes from the Team Illumina, such as Tania Di Mario, Giacomo Galanda and Bruno Mascarenhas, will feature in campaign videos to invite citizens and families to participate in the donation week and to donate a book at the participating bookstores.
The postcards at Bookcity
During the donation week, Saturday, November 7 at 2:30 p.m., the Mondadori Bookstore on Corso Buenos Aires in Milan will host a creative workshop dedicated to the “A Community That Grows” campaign, featuring children as protagonists. Guided by Pietro Puccio, a veteran illustrator of #ioleggoperché, they will reinterpret the edition’s visual and design their own vision of community, imagining characters, places and situations capable of narrating how books can help it grow. Some of the works produced during the workshop will become a series of #ioleggoperché postcards, which will headline a “diffused exhibition” at BookCity Milano, a project partner, scheduled from 23 to 29 November. This year’s collaboration is especially meaningful, as BookCity dedicates a specific focus to the 0-6 age group—the same group to which #ioleggoperché is turning its attention with the opening of nurseries. The project thus builds a bridge between the donation week and BookCity, bringing the perspectives and creativity of the youngest to the festival.
The “Messengers” of #ioleggoperché
Also in the eleventh edition, the “Messengers” of #ioleggoperché return, the project’s ambassadors: young adults, teachers and passionate readers who, during the donation week, accompany booksellers in participating bookstores across Italy to advise the “right title” to donate to a school or nursery and explain to the public how the initiative works. A presence that, bookstore by bookstore, makes the participatory dimension of #ioleggoperché real and guides citizens in the act of donating.
The publishers’ contribution to the initiative
In addition to the books donated by citizens, there will be the 100,000 books provided by publishers, with an important novelty. In the 2026 edition the contribution will be allocated to the participating nurseries, primary and secondary schools in Calabria, Sardinia, and Molise, the three regions that, based on the analysis conducted by the AIE Research Office, recorded lower levels of activation. The schools in these three regions that apply can collect them at the bookstore next spring.
The analysis considered several indicators – from school participation to the share of institutions that received at least one donation, up to the average number of books donated per school – allowing the identification of territories that have had fewer opportunities to benefit from the initiative previously.
The aim is to allocate additional resources where they can most strengthen #ioleggoperché’s impact, without altering its national and participatory character: the donation campaign will continue to involve the entire country and schools and nurseries from all regions will receive the books purchased for them by citizens. The objective is to grow the project where it is most fragile, to make it stronger everywhere, expanding access to books and reading and helping to reduce the still-present disparities in the country.
The initiative, it should be recalled, is supported by the Ministry of Culture through the Center for Books and Reading, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Merit, the Italian Libraries Association (AIB), the Italian Booksellers Association (ALI) and the Italian Booksellers and Stationers’ Union (SIL).
