ASHFIELD, MA — As of Monday afternoon, the top three readers on the Belding Memorial Library’s summer reading leaderboard were a 44-year-old paralegal, a retired UPS driver, and a woman who teaches Pilates in the basement of the Congregational church, none of whom are eligible for the grand prize on account of being adults, and all three of whom have indicated they don’t see how that is their problem.
Diane Hovey, Greg Massimino, and Patty Krzyzewski have collectively logged 4,180 reading minutes since the program opened June 9, more than triple the output of any actual enrolled child, including eight-year-old Owen Riley, who held the lead for one afternoon before being passed by Hovey somewhere in the back half of a James Patterson novel.
Library staff initially assumed the entries were a tracking error. Children’s librarian Nora Whitcomb said she ran the numbers four times before accepting that three grown adults had voluntarily filled out the laminated reading log meant for ages 5 to 12, including the section where you draw a picture of your favorite character. Hovey turned in a detailed pencil sketch of Atticus Finch and signed it.
“They’re reading alongside their kids,” Whitcomb said carefully, in the tone of a woman who has been told to say this. “That’s what we’re going with.”
Krzyzewski, who does not have children, finished a 412-page biography of Eleanor Roosevelt last Thursday and presented herself at the front desk for the corresponding sticker. When informed the sticker book was for participants in the youth program, she pointed to her name on the leaderboard and waited. She left with a sticker.
The library’s three-page program guidelines, last updated in 2009, do not contain the word “adult.” Whitcomb spent most of Monday morning on the phone with the Western Massachusetts Library Cooperative trying to determine whether the rules implied an age cap or merely assumed one. The cooperative’s policy director, Frances Bowdoin, said the matter has been referred to a working group.
Some Ashfield parents have raised concerns. Megan Riley, Owen’s mother, said her son cried in the parking lot on Saturday after seeing Greg Massimino’s name added to the “Bookworm Bonanza” board for the third week running. Massimino, reached at his home on Bullitt Road, said he was sorry the boy was upset but added that he had read every Hardy Boys book in the building and was not going to pretend he hadn’t.
The three adults have, according to Whitcomb, begun a group text. Hovey was overheard Sunday telling a friend at the post office that she intended to “close out” the Newbery section by July 4 and had already requested two interlibrary loans from Greenfield to keep her pace up. Krzyzewski has reportedly switched to large-print editions to reduce eye strain over what she described as a “long stretch of summer” still ahead.
The grand prize, announced at the library’s July 19 closing ceremony, is a $10 gift card to the Friendly’s in Greenfield. Whitcomb confirmed Tuesday that the gift card will go to a child. She declined to say what, if anything, would be given to the adults, who at last check were tied for second place in a separate, hastily created Adult Recognition Tier that does not yet have a name, a ribbon, or, Whitcomb noted, her endorsement.