An 8-Year-Old Kid Secretly Left His Handwritten Book in a Library and Discovered People Love It!

Mischief is to be expected from kids.

But what if an eight-year-old kid decides to combine talent and mischief to make his dream come true?

Dillon Helbig is a second-grader whose family lives in Idaho. Since age five, he has been writing books and entertaining his parents with stories.

Then, last December, he received a gift from his grandmother: a journal with a red cover, which inspired him to write a story about Christmas. Dillon quickly set to work and, in just a matter of days, he finished his 81-page book, The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis.

What is also marvelous about this book is that Dillon drew the illustrations himself with colored pencils.

Now comes the difficult part, publishing. Dillon has a dislike for publishers because they make most of the money. All that he wanted was to share his book with others. That was when a naughty idea popped into his head.

Yes, there is a place where he could immediately make his book available to a lot of people!

Upon entering the Ada Community Library’s Lake Hazel Branch in Boise with his grandmother, Dillon mustered the courage to carry out his mischievous plan. He had his book tucked to his chest to hide it. As librarians warmly greeted the boy, Dillon hurried through aisles until he reached the picture-book shelf.

There, he placed his first novel without anyone noticing his daring act.

How did he get discovered? Dillon confessed his library mischief to his mother, Susan Helbig. A fear overcame them both: What if the librarians have discovered the book and gotten rid of it? Mother and son returned to the library, but Dillon’s book was gone.

Susan started calling the library to find out if anyone found her son’s book, The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis. She was quick to admit that Dillon sneaked it onto a library shelf, but they did not want the book to be destroyed.

That was when Alex Hartman, branch manager, gave them the most surprising news! The library had decided to keep Dillon’s book as part of its collection. It was Hartman who found it and read it to his son, who fell in love with the illustrated novel. The reactions of other people, including the librarians, were all the same. They loved it!

What followed next was a buzz of excitement in the community and in the media world and a Whodini Award for Dillon from Lake Hazel’s Ada Community Library.

Now, Dillon is inspiring more young minds to write about their own adventures while also working on a sequel to his “Crismis” success.

No dream is too big for this talented and audacious kid!

Written by Doris De Luna