An 8-year-old boy wrote a book and secretly put it onto a library shelf. Now he's a star

Meet Dillon Helbig, an 8-year-old boy and a new name in literature. The boy wrote his first book in December and took it upon himself to promote it. He just put a copy on the shelf at his local library.

In mid-December 2021, the boy got inspired by the holiday atmosphere and wrote a book “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis”. The work contains 81 pages, hand-illustrated by the young author. For example, the first chapter "To the North Pole" is decorated with a winter landscape drawn with colored pencils.

When the book was ready, Dillon came up with a plan to make sure it found its reader. One day he went with his grandmother to the library and secretly left the volume on the children's bookshelf.

Then the boy told his mother about his joke. But when they returned to the library two days later, the book was gone.

The Helbigs called the library and asked them not to throw away such a valuable copy. But they were told the book was a great success. The staff found the work on the shelf and read it. Librarian Alex Hartman even read the story to his 6-year-old son, and he really liked it.

Dillon was asked permission to officially add the book to the library's collection.

The boy, of course, agreed. The tale can now be found in the graphic novels section for children and teens, unless, of course, it has been taken home by readers. There was a long queue for “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis”. On January 29, 2022, there were already 55 people on the waiting list.

The library specifically created and presented the boy with a  Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist. They are also discussing with the family the creation of an electronic version so that as many people as possible could read the work.

Source: washingtonpost

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