8-year-old took his handwritten book and snuck it into city library. What happened next

“The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis” “by Dillon His Self” is a big hit among the readers. (Image: Facebook/Ada community library)

When 8-year-old Dillon Helbig started writing a book, he had no idea what a big hit it would be. The little boy from Idaho in the US has created quite a flutter after the boy unobtrusively snuck his 88-page long handwritten book into the local library.

Dillon is a second grader from Boise and finished writing the Christmas adventure story in a notebook in December last year. He then wanted readers so he quietly placed it on the children’s picture shelf in his city’s local library.

The Ada community library's Lake Hazel Branch then got a call from Dillon’s mother around two days later about the book and urged them to not throw it away. Much to Dillon’s mother Susan’s surprise, “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis” “by Dillon His Self” was a big hit among the staff already.

“Dillon's book is an impressive 88 pages, complete with full-color illustrations and even a library spine label, which came in handy when we located it for his mom to come "check out",” the library said in a Facebook post with several pictures of the book.

The library also awarded the young author an award: the ‘2021 Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist’ -a category created for him.

The budding author soon found internet fame with author and former CIA employee Christopher Burgess sharing Dillon’s story.

A whole lot of goodness in this piece. Kudos to the Ada Community Library for making the book part of the graphic-novel section.

“The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis” “by Dillon His Self.”" Read here: https://t.co/I3bk9z31Af (my subscription means no cost to you) pic.twitter.com/8rdTdHFF8U — Christopher Burgess (@burgessct) February 1, 2022

The Christmas adventure story was handwritten on a red-cover notebook and is replete with illustrations made with colour pencils. The story caught the attention of the library staff and they loved it so much that they asked Dillon’s mother’s permission to add the book formally to the library’s collection.

Dillon’s parents enthusiastically said yes, and the book is now part of the graphic-novels section for kids, teens and adults, The Washington Post reported.

After a TV news report on the story, locals have been waiting to check out the book but the line is very long. As of Saturday, there was a 55-person waitlist to read the book, The Washington Post reported.