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8-year-old writes story in notebook, leaves it on library shelf, gets fan following

This article is more than 12 months old

This American kid knows just how to make a self-published book fly off the shelf. By leaving it there to begin with.

The eight-year-old wrote and illustrated his story in a red notebook.

Then came the self-publishing part, which is where he got really innovative.

Instead of taking books out of the library as usual, Dillon Helbig decided to sneak his book in.

He did it when he went with his grandmother to a community library in the city of Boise in Idaho in mid-December.

He managed to leave his 81-page book, The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis, on a shelf there and leave without being spotted.

“I always be sneaky, like how I get chocolate,” Dillon was quoted as telling a local TV station later.

After a few days, he went back to the library to check on his book and found that it was gone.

He told his mother about what he had done and she spoke to the library staff. That was when the whole story came out.

The staff had found and read his book, about a star on a Christmas tree exploding and sending him on a time-travelling trip, and were charmed.

So, after they were told Dillon just wanted others to read it, they decided to catalogue it, and soon there were dozens of people on a waitlist to borrow it.

“We are so proud of him,” Dillon’s mother was quoted as saying in US media reports. “We see him drawing and writing books, and he keeps himself busy for hours and days on end.”

Dillion, who said he was inspired by the comic series Dog Man by Dav Pilkey, is already working on his next book, called The Jacket Eating Closet, based, it seems, on a true story.

“Every time in kindergarten, I put my jacket in the closet, and during recess, it would be gone,” he was quoted as saying. “The jackets are still gone and that's why I'm making the book.”

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