We’d do anything to achieve our dreams.
We strive hard and hone our skills to be a better person tomorrow than who we are today. All of that entails a lot of hard work, determination, and sometimes some courage to do the unthinkable.
This eight-year-old from Boise made a bold move towards his dreams.
Since he was five, Dillon Helbig dreamed of being an author and seeing his book in a library. He was fond of writing stories in journals and the notebooks given to him. Of course, they come with illustrations that he made himself.
When he received a journal from his grandmother, he immediately filled its pages with a new story.
He worked on it for two whole days, and the title of the book?
“The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis by Dillon His Self”.
Yep, this young boy wrote a story about a boy named Dillon (of course, he’s the protagonist!) who was decorating his Christmas tree when the star topper exploded. This explosion then formed into a portal which led him to the first Thanksgiving, where he also saw a giant turkey.
Interesting, isn’t it?
His mom, Susan, thought it was just another of Dillon’s many books and was not surprised with her son’s work at all. What surprised her was what he did with the book.
He left the book in the Lake Hazel Branch of Ada County Library.
Now, to give everyone an idea of what makes this surprising, it takes a long process to land a book on a library shelf. You need someone to publish your work for you, sell it, and distribute it to libraries.
Dillon did not do any of those things but somehow still found a way to put his own book on the shelves.
He simply snuck the book inside and placed it on one of the shelves. The next day, he went back to find his book was gone. He had no choice but to tell his mother what he did.
His mother called the library and inquired about the book.
Fortunately, the library’s branch manager Alex Hartman had found the book and kept it. He said that the librarians loved it.
“Dillon’s book definitely fits all the criteria that we would look for to include a book in our collection,” Hartman told KTVB.
With Dillon’s permission, they placed the proper library stickers on the book, cataloged it, and placed it on their shelves.
Dillon was also given the library’s Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist.
This award was named after their owl mascot (and not for Dillon’s sneaky move). They created this category to honor Dillon and they hope to inspire other children to write their own stories – but not to leave them on the library’s shelves!
Dillon’s book has become a hit and even has a waiting list of people waiting to read it.
According to the latest update from The Guardian, Dillon’s book has a 55-people waiting list as of January 29. The library is asking Dillon’s mom if she can create digital copies of the book to shorten the line.
Hear more about Dillon’s book in the video below!
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