Feisty Brazilian teenager starts a community library in a Rio shantytown

Brazilian teenager Lua Oliveira had the idea to open a public library after visiting the Rio de Janeiro International Book Fair last year and made posts in social networks asking for donations, which went viral. Photo: AFP

Lua has a hungry look on her face as she holds her new book on Nelson Mandela, one of thousands the precocious 12-year-old has amassed for her new library in a poor Brazilian favela.

"I don't read books. I devour them," she says in Rio de Janeiro's Tabajaras neighbourhood, a shantytown perched in the hills overlooking the chic districts of Copacabana and Botafogo.