A school library with no books. Not one. As sad a picture as a classroom with no kids.

It just about broke Jan Tinetti's heart.

The schoolteacher is still entrenched within the Labour MP, so the experience deeply affected the former Merivale principal. And now she is committed to putting it right.

Jan was with a parliamentary delegation visiting a school in the Solomon Islands. 'There was a shed,” she says, 'something a backyard do-it-yourselfer might throw together.”

The local teacher then explained it was the library - but a library with no books. It was empty, with not a thing in it.

'The teacher said it was their dream to have books,” says Jan, 'but they don't have any right now. They're desperately trying to get their kids through school, and they're trying to get their reading up but they don't have any books or resources.”

There's no art supplies either – Jan saw children's art on the back of cardboard boxes. The only time they have art supplies is when a teacher gives up a meagre wage and buys them for the kids.

'To see them learning, and wanting to learn, but without the resources to assist was heart breaking,” admits Jan.

So the MP is planning a cross-party initiative – a book drive in league with National's Anne Tolley. 'She's also passionate about helping children,” says Jan. 'It's something that's easily done. Here in New Zealand we have lots of books and we don't know what to do with them all.”

The schoolkids in the Solomons don't mind ‘secondhand' – they will take anything because, right now, anything is better than nothing. 'I have a room full of children's books,” says Jan. 'My kids are all grown up and won't need them.” Her book drive starts right at home.

'We're talking fiction, non-fiction, books you would go to the library for, the richness of print. The world's not so open to them.

'Their imaginations can't go the same places because they don't have the books to take them there. We are talking about those kids being able to immerse themselves in reading, in the stories.”

The MP says they're teaching 'beautifully” at the Solomon Islands school. 'Auckland University has been over there teaching the teachers and they're thrilled about that,” she says. 'But there's no books and no art supplies.”

Jan says even the kids at Tauranga's Merivale School, one of the lowest decile schools in the country, are actually quite privileged because they have access to all of those resources, but the kids in the Solomons don't.

While the book drive concept is coming together, and while she organises getting the books to the Solomons, people having a cleanup and with any kids' books to spare should get in touch with her Tauranga office on: (07) 571 2492 or email: Jan.Tinetti@parliament.govt.nz

'We will gratefully take them and find a place to store them,” she says. 'I would rather we take them now than they get thrown out.”

Next week, Jan Tinetti explains the value of the New Zealand aid dollar, and how that money is washing little hands and changing lives in the South Pacific. 'You can hear about it and read about it,” she says, 'but seeing firsthand the impact of our aid dollars