An 8-year-old boy from Idaho drew and wrote his own book and hid it on a shelf in a Boise County library for people to read.
The 81-page work now has a waiting list that exceeds 55 readers.
Second grader Dillon Helbig finished a story in December of last year that he titled
The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis
and signed it as
Dillon His Self
.
In his book he details what happens after placing
a bomb on his Christmas tree
that catapults him to the first Thanksgiving and the North Pole, according to The Washington Post.
When he had his work ready, Helbig went with his grandmother to the library one day and, without anyone seeing him, he left it among other books, waiting for it to find readers.
"I've wanted to put my book in the center of the library
since I was 5 years old
, I've always had a love for books and libraries," Helbig told
Good Morning America.
"I've been to many libraries since I was a baby," he added.
Alex Hartman, manager of the Ada Community Library in Boise, said Hilber was indeed a repeat visitor and thus understood the importance of sharing books and stories.
"[Dillon] just genuinely wanted other people to be able to enjoy his story," the librarian said.
Hartman was so entertained by Dillon's adventures that he shared them with his 6-year-old son Cruzen, who told him it was
one of the funniest books he had ever read.
The rest of the library employees had a similar opinion.
So Hartman asked Helbig's parents for permission to put a barcode on the book and include it in the library's official list, in the category of graphic novels.
The library also awarded the little writer the Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist, a category created exclusively for him.
[A 2-year-old is thrilled to see his resemblance to a character from 'Charming']
"His imagination is always active. He is a very creative boy," said Susan Hilber, his mother.
His book is one of the most requested in Ada, so Hartman has proposed to make a digital version to reach more readers.
"We just hope that
kids find inspiration to write their own stories
and share them with other people," Hartman concluded.
