Over Christmas break, an 8-year-old boy from Boise, Idaho, wrote a book and wanted everyone to read it!
After spending four days on it, Dillon Helbig filled 81 pages of a journal with a richly illustrated tale about how he gets transported back in time after his Christmas tree stars explodes.
However, being in second grade, he did not have a book deal. Not letting this deter him, his grandmother took him to a local library where he slipped the sole copy of his book onto a shelf containing fiction titles.
Over the next month, a series of circumstances made the book one of the library’s most sought-after titles and also inspired children in Boise to write their own stories.
His book, “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis” drew so much attention that by the end of January 56 people were on the waiting list to check it out!
Dillon has been writing “comic-style books” since he was 5, but this one is certainly his most successful, in fact, the library gave him its first-ever “Whoodini Award” for best young novelist, an award they created just for him.
After hearing about the book, publishers have contacted the library about officially publishing the book and the library plans on making extra copies of the book.
What does Dillon have to say about his success? That he’s going to stop writing when he’s forty, and start making games.