Cape Town: Christmas has come early for young library patrons who have a chance to return outstanding items, during the ‘Fine Free Week’ to be observed from Dec 15 to 20, 2025. The book series of ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ remained the most outstanding item from the City Libraries, taking up seven of the top-10 list of items to be returned.
Reportedly, the City Libraries are getting into the holiday spirit, and they are hopeful that the young patrons will return the favour in the form of overdue books.
The Fine Free Week for children is the final one for this year and will run from Dec 15 to 20, 2025 when library material can be returned without paying fines for late items. The total number of outstanding books to be returned by the children are 10,025 valued at over R2.2 million.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Community Services and Health – Councillor Francine Higham said that it is heartening to see the children’s love for books and how they want to read them over and over again.
By returning these books, they can share the joy of a story and can find new adventures to go on. The officials called-on parents to encourage their children to return their books, as it helps in keeping the collections diverse and teaches them the responsibility.
The city libraries want to ensure fair access to the material for everyone, but to do that, they need outstanding items to be returned.
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series continues to lead the pack of most outstanding items, taking the top six spots. At the same time, the patrons under-18 can apply for a free replacement of their library cards.
Once they have checked out their books, they can then also check-out the holiday programmes at their library or local recreation centre. Some of the activities at libraries include snake and puppet shows, games, movies and arts and crafts that will entertain the kids.