Adrian Piccoli our wonderful Street Library patron shares his love of books with us.
Professor Adrian Piccoli is Director of UNSW’s Gonski Institute for Education. The Gonski Institute was established in 2018 with a mission to address growing inequality in Australian education as well as improving access for students to high-quality education wherever they may live or go to school.
Adrian offers priceless advice to parents to be better informed about their child’s schooling. He has spent 19 years in the NSW parliament and 6 years as an Education minister.
Check out Adrian’s recently released book “12 Ways Your Child Can Get The Best Out Of School”
- If you could put any book in a Street Library, what would it be and why?
Gone with the wind (GWTW) and The Diary of a Whimpy Kid. GWTW is a great book to read just for pleasure but it is also set in a significant period in history. As a lover of history GWTW crosses both a fictional novel but a little bit of history. And not just the US civil war context but also important social history issues like race, poverty and the treatment of women. Diary of a Whimpy Kid because my kids just love the books. When kids love books then they will read and that’s why DOAWK is on my list - What book(s) are you currently reading, and what sorts of things do you look for in a ‘good book’?
As a lover of history, most of my books are history books. I have been reading a lot of recent US political history lately given the turbulent few years we have just had. I have also been reading books about NASA and related science books. - Have you come across a Street Library, if so where and what was your experience?
I have been bumping into Street Libraries all the time. I spotted them in shopping strips, in front of schools and out in front of people’s places. - What inspired you to become an author?
I admire authors. That’s not why I wrote a book but I admire someone who can write a fiction book and keep track of all the characters etc from the very first page right to the last page. I wrote a nonfiction book with separate chapters. I think that was much easier. I became an author because there was a book I thought needed writing so I wrote it. - If you could design your own Street Library in any way imaginable, how would it be decorated and why?
My aim was to create a Street Library that was as bright as possible. Kids love colour and movement so I would decorate it with anything that would draw children’s attention to the Street Library.
