Young bookworms who can't keep track of a deadline are no longer in danger of losing their borrowing privileges at the library, thanks to a new measure granting thousands of kids amnesty from late fees. Call off the book detectives!
Starting today, the New York Public Library will pardon some 140,000 kids who've been barred from borrowing books due to late fines that clock in at over $15. "Kids might be afraid or ashamed because they are delinquent with the library," said NYPL spokesman Jack Martin. "The idea of this program is to bring them back in." That's good news for little lit lovers like 10-year-old Rafiyu Mahmood of the Bronx, who read 666 books in 90 days last year but was temporarily barred for accruing $18 in late fees. "In my mind, it's like a movie, it's fun," explained the freakishly fast reader, who rents about 10 books at a time.
The move is a part of the Library's Summer Reading program, which encourages kids and teens to read even when their teachers aren't forcing them to. No word yet on whether the amnesty extends to founding father George Washington, who racked up a pretty $300,000 in fines for stealing (!) two books from the New York Society Library 200 years ago.
