Eight-year-old boy wrote a book and secretly put it in the library: the story became a hit

During the Christmas holidays, 8-year-old Dillon Helbig from Boise, Idaho, wrote a book. He really wanted everyone to read it, so he took it to the library and put it with other books. The boy's story eventually became a hit. Read more about this publication The New York Times.

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He spent four days creating the story and filled 81 pages of a blank magazine with a richly illustrated story about how he traveled back in time after the star on his Christmas tree exploded.

But he didn't have a contract for the book. So when his grandmother took him to the library at the end of December, he put the only copy of his book on the fiction shelf.

“I had to sneak past the librarians,” Dillon said.

Over the next month, a series of circumstances made the book one of the most requested in the library, and also inspired children in Boise to write their own stories.

The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis garnered so much attention by the end of January that 56 people were in line to read it, said Alex Hartman, library manager.

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If each person kept the book for four weeks, the maximum borrowing time, the last person on the list would have to wait over four years to read Dillon's story.

According to his mother Susan Helbig, the night after Dillon secretly left his book on a shelf in the library, he confessed to his parents. They called the library thinking they could pick it up from the lost and found office. But the librarians were so enamored with the book that they played along with Dillon.

“It deserves a place on the shelves of our library,” said Hartman. “It's a good story.”

The librarians listed the book in their catalog system, he said, but did not specify a publisher category. They also moved it from the fiction section and put it next to graphic novels as it has a lot of illustrations.

As for the number of spelling and grammatical errors in the book, "I would say there will be many," he remarked.

For example, in "Chapter 1" Dillon writes, "One Day in wintr it wus Crismis!"

In his short story Crismis, Dillon, the protagonist and author, goes on a journey through time after the explosion of a star on a tree.

“Santa is coming,” he said, explaining the next part of the plot. Afterwards, Dillon comes across five trees, and one of them "looks like a tree-like portal".

The portal takes him back in time to the "first Thanksgiving" in 1621, the date of which he learned from his mother.

"His imagination is amazing!" she stressed.

According to his mother, Dillon has been writing "comic-style books" since he was 5, but this one is by far the most successful. The library gave him their first ever "Vhudini Award" for Best Young Writer, an award they created especially for him.

“It was a real sell-out,” Helbig said.

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As news of Dillon's literary triumph spread across the country, his classmates told him that he had inspired them to write their own books: "That was really cool, we wish we were you too."

The children informed Hartman, the library manager, that they too wanted to write books for the library. Dillon was offered a job by local writer Christian Lane to set up a children's writing workshop at the library.

Apart from the seminar, the young author may have other important things to do, Hartman said: The publishers have contacted the library about the official publication of the book. The librarians plan to make additional copies of the book.

“We hope other kids will be inspired by Dillon to share their stories,” Hartman suggested.

According to Helbig, her son wants to be a writer, although he has other plans.

“I will stop writing when I turn 40,” Dillon said. “And then I’ll make games.”

Dillon already has exciting plans for the following books: “My next book will be called Jacket Eating Cabinet. It is based on real events."

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