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

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.

Below is how the internet reacted.