Kid’s books rank highest

The Star has learned,

On a giant list of library books

That were never returned.

Robert Munsch and Dr. Seuss are two of the more popular authors whose books were borrowed but never returned from the Toronto Public Library (TPL).

From 2006 to 2015, just over 100,000 checked-out TPL items were logged as missing when the borrower did not return or pay for them, data obtained through a freedom of information request shows.

Combined, the items (the majority of which are mass market paperbacks, but also include textbooks and DVDs) are worth approximately $2.16 million.

The total represents only a fraction (0.00037 per cent) of the library’s entire collection during the same time period. It also does not take into account items that may have been purged from the system.

Children’s Book Authors Top the List

Of the top 10 writers who appeared most frequently in the database, children’s book authors placed first, second and third.

Robert Munsch topped the list; followed by Dr. Seuss and Geronimo Stilton (whose real name is Elisabetta Dami).

"I am happy to see that thieves like my books and will continue to try to serve the needs of the reading underworld,” said Munsch, taking the news rather well.

TPL officials pointed to their large inventory of titles penned by the popular authors to explain the results.

“Obviously, every new generation of readers still want to read Munch and Dr. Seuss all the way back to the first book those authors ever wrote,” said Susan Caron, the TPL’s acting director of collection management. “As a result, we have always maintained a huge inventory of those titles.”

“It is these author’s sense of humour, they have the ability to really speak to children,” said Caron in a telephone interview. “Munsch, for example … some of his books are so perfectly in tune to what a child thinks is funny, he has a knack for making them laugh.”

Caron recalled the time she witnessed the Guelph-based author’s gift when he visited a library branch she was working at.

“(Munsch) was reading Love You Forever and the kids at his feet in front of him were all laughing,” she said. “But the mothers in the back were all crying floods of tears.”

Summer programming boosts borrowing

Many of the items borrowed and never returned were signed out during the summer months. Circulation activity peaks in both July and August, partly due to the library’s popular summer reading club.

“I'm heading to the library tonight to return our paperback copy of (Roald Dahl’s) BFG that I know will get lost in the chaos of summer vacation otherwise,” said mom Jennifer Bethune, who shamelessly admitted to misplacing her five-year-old son’s borrowed picture books from time to time.

“Maybe it has something to do with the hoarding instincts of five-years-olds,” she said. “Parents are busy and in some cases are a little more cluttered than people without little children.”

Library officials say a new TPL program has been created to provide young delinquent borrowers a clean slate … as long as they meet a certain criteria.

TPL’s Forgiveness Campaign, launched this past May, will also encourage students to revisit their local branch. A function of the City of Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, the initiative waives pre-existing fee and fine barriers to children and teens living in Toronto’s Neighborhood Improvement Areas.

Karen and Charlie Davey: The lost picture book

Etobicoke’s Mommy Connections community group manager Karen Davey said she held on to her son’s borrowed picture book, “along with a guilty conscience,” for over a year.

“We didn’t tell the librarian because we thought she’d be mad,” said her son Charlie, who added that he did not particularly care for “Superman and the Shrinking City” anyways.

“When I finally paid the fee, we found the book a couple days later,” said Karen, his mother. “I haven’t brought it back because I am so embarrassed.

Parents Tell Their Library Stories

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The Toronto Star reached out to local parenting groups on social media to hear the stories behind their library late fees.

Jessica Isaac: This little baby was borrowed in 2006, lost during a move and found years later. I avoided the library for years because of it. When I got the nerve to go back, I got a new library card in my married name. Oops!

Ingrid Larsen: Just returned (a book) last week after my 7 year old shamed me saying “didn’t you return that YET? Was too embarrassed to ’fess up, so I slipped it into the regular return bin...”

Victoria Aldworth: had just finished paying $16 worth of fines. “All children’s books,” she admitted.

Marissa Catena: currently has two books on loan past their time. “I'll bring (them) back I swear,” she wrote on the Mommy Connections West Toronto Facebook page. “I already got the collections letter …”

Angela Michalak: My daughter hides & hoards them. I had to pay for a stash of Little Miss books that I eventually found between her bed & the wall.

Top 10 authors:

Robert Munsch

Dr. Seuss

Geronimo Stilton

James Patterson

Stephen King

Eric Jerome Dickey

Jeff Kinney

Masashi Kishimoto

William Shakespeare

Danielle Steel