Handwritten book by 8-year-old has years-long waitlist

Team Udayavani, Feb 7, 2022, 1:19 PM IST

An eight-year-old in the US state of Idaho wrote a children’s book and snuck it into the local library’s shelf without authorization. The book quickly became a hit with readers, and there is already a huge waiting list for it.

In mid-December, Dillon Helbig, a second-grader from Idaho, finished writing the Christmas adventure story in his notebook. He wanted people to read it, so he devised a strategy and patiently waited to execute it. He placed the 88-page book into the children’s picture-book shelf while visiting the library with his grandmother in his hometown of Boise. Nobody, not even his grandmother, saw him do it.

Dillon Helbig, on the other hand, informed his mother, Susan Helbig, about it later. They went to the library two days later, but the book wasn’t there. They contacted the library to request that it not be discarded. The book, to their surprise, was a big hit with readers. The Lake Hazel Branch of the Ada Community Library posted about the event on their Facebook page.

The novel, titled “The Adventures of Dillon’s Crismis,” earned the Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist in 2021, a category created by the library for him.

The library branch manager Alex Hartman told The Washington Post, “It was a sneaky act.” But the book “was far too obviously special an item for us to consider getting rid of it,” Mr Hartman added. The book has a 55-person waitlist at the library, which allows patrons to hold onto books for up to four weeks.

Christopher Burgess, now an author who served for the Central Intelligence Agency for more than 30 years, praised Dillon Helbig’s “sneaky act.” “I know a specific three-letter agency that is always on the lookout for someone with Dillion’s skills,” Mr Burgess said.

❣️📕 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

🕵️ I know a certain three-letter agency that is always looking for folks with skills like Dillion's 🕵️

"81-page book to his chest and passed by the librarians. Then, unbeknown to his grandmother, Dillon slipped the book onto a children’s picture-book shelf. Nobody saw him do it" pic.twitter.com/laxxJaHifj

— Christopher Burgess (@burgessct) February 1, 2022

Below is how the internet reacted.

This is the best news story I’ve ever read. 81 pages!! Wow!

— tricia docherty 🌻 (@docherty66) February 1, 2022

I'm all about interspersing goodness and inspiration in the stream of pragmatic reality.

I loved this story as well! ❣️📕

— Christopher Burgess (@burgessct) February 1, 2022

The staff librarians who read Dillon’s book agreed that as informal and unconventional as it was, the book met the selection criteria for the collection in that it was a high-quality story that was fun to read. https://t.co/cjVtVp0ZPC

— Nutmeg Yankee (@NutmegDense) February 2, 2022