Dillon Helbig, an eight-year-old lad from Boise, Idaho, proved that he can do anything he sets his mind to.
Since he was five, the youngster had wanted to put a book in the library. And after taking matters into his own hands, that dream finally became a reality—he now has his own picture book registered in the library!
It all started when Dillon’s grandmother gave him a blank red journal. The kid spent about four days writing and drawing into it.
A few days later, in December of last year, he visited the Ada Community Library’s Lake Hazel Branch with his grandma. There, he waited took the chance to stealthily slip his 81-page comic book onto one of the shelves in the children’s picture-book section.
“I always be (sic) sneaky, like how I get chocolate,” he told KTVB7.
Dillon later confessed to his family about what he had done. However, when he returned to the library a couple of days later, he discovered that his picture book had gone missing from where he left it.
Susan Helbig, Dillon’s mother, called the library to ask if they had found her son’s book, titled “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis” by “Dillon His Self.”
Alex Hartman, the Lake Hazel Library branch manager, said that Dillon’s parents were worried they had found the book and gotten rid of it.
“Which was an unfounded fear because if there’s ever a place a book would be safe, it would be here,” he said.
As any librarian would be, Alex was surprised with Dillon’s bold move.
“It was a sneaky act,” he said. But the lad’s book “was far too obviously special an item for us to consider getting rid of it,” he added.
Hartman and a few of his coworkers had read Dillon’s fictional book. It’s about him decorating a tree when the star on top suddenly explodes.
“I think someone overnight put a bomb in there and it just exploded,” he said.
The explosion sucks him into a portal and brings him back to the first Thanksgiving in the North Pole.
“Everything about it was a bit crazy,” he shared.
The librarians found “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis” extremely entertaining, saying it’s a high-quality story and a fun read.
When Hartman read the book to his six-year-old son, Cruzen, the boy giggled and said it was one of the funniest books he had ever known.
“Dillon is a confident guy and a generous guy. He wanted to share the story. I don’t think it’s a self-promotion thing. He just genuinely wanted other people to be able to enjoy his story… He’s been a lifelong library user, so he knows how books are shared,” Alex said.
When the branch manager asked if he could tack a bar code onto the book to formally add it to the library’s collection, Dillon answered with a resounding yes.
Now, the boy’s book is part of the graphic novels section for kids, teens, and adults. It has even earned its author the “Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist,” a category named after the library’s owl mascot and created for Dillon.
“His imagination is just constantly going, and he is a very creative little boy,” Susan described her son. She also revealed that the kid often entertains her and her husband, Alex Helbig, by coming up with these “amazing stories and adventures.”
Since becoming a full-fledged library book, “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis” has become an instant sensation. In fact, there’s an 88-person waitlist for it!
Although it won’t take too long to read the book, borrowers can keep the books for up to four weeks. And considering the years-long waitlist, the library doesn’t allow renewals for this one.
Fans would be happy to know that Dillon is working on a sequel to the book. The kid is also writing a story about a jacket-eating closet.
Listen to the budding author as he adorably retells the story of how his book ended up in the library in the video below.
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