Dimitris Economou was visiting his parents in Greece and looking for a book to read to his 7-year-old son when he found a copy of the children’s book “Harry the Dirty Dog” on his dad’s bookshelf. He remembered the story from his own childhood.
“As we finished, I got to the back where I saw the library card,” Economou said of his visit last summer.
He realized two things — that this was a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library and that it was very overdue. It said it had been checked out on Nov. 6, 1989.
Economou figured out that the book must have been taken out for him when he was 5 years old from a public library in Northern Virginia. Economou spent the first 12 years of his life in Fairfax County while his parents worked for the Greek Embassy in D.C. He remembers visiting the public library often as a kid, usually with his mother, Marina Economou, who regularly checked out books to read to him.
After the family’s time in Virginia, they moved back to Greece, and his father went on to live in Syria, Japan and the Netherlands, the library book relocating with him without anyone realizing it. His parents split up and have since both settled in Greece.
Economou was planning to be in Northern Virginia over the holidays and took the book with him to finally return it, including a note explaining how he came across it. He wrote that the book had “traveled the world and was well taken care of, as you can see. And now it can find its way home.”
Fortunately for Economou, the library stopped charging late fees a few years ago, though he said he would have happily paid a fine to support the library.
“There was a maximum for late fees, so it would never have been like hundreds and hundreds of dollars or anything,” said Ingrid Bowers, the branch manager at the Chantilly Regional Library, the branch where Economou returned the book. She noted that the book was in great condition, especially given its age and world travels. “This is something that’s going to go right back into our collection.”
The day that Economou returned the book, Nov. 29, Bowers was in her office. One of the staff members received the book at the circulation desk and brought it back to show her.
“It made my day,” Bowers said.
“Harry the Dirty Dog” was published in 1956. It was written by Gene Zion and illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham, and it follows the story of a little dog who doesn’t want to take a bath and runs away from home to avoid it. He gets dirtier and dirtier until he finally returns home, and his family doesn’t recognize him — and he has to beg for a bath to show them he is really their beloved dog, Harry.
“The story itself is just a sweet story about a dog who goes on an adventure,” Bowers said. “The dog is being very childlike, and it’s relatable.”
“People really care about library books, and most people really care about getting them back. And this kind of proves it, that they really cared about getting the book back to us,” Bowers said. “I once had a person who had left their book on a plane. And the pilot ended up mailing it back to us. But the person was frantic about it when they called.”
Economou’s son enjoyed the book and when Economou told him they would be returning it to the library, his son asked whether they could buy a copy of their own.
When Economou talked to his mother about discovering and returning the book, he said, she got emotional. She told him that she had good memories from that time when he and his brother were young and they would read together, he said, and she was proud that her son was returning the book.
“If it generates good attention for the library, for people to go to the library,” Economou said, then the book’s long journey will have been worth it.
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