Kid Sneaks His Self-Made Book Onto Library Shelf. Now It Has A Years-Long Waitlist

February 2, 2022

There's a rare book in high demand at a public library in Boise, Idaho.

It is the original manuscript, there's no copies, and it requires a years-long waitlist to borrow it.

The cover of Dillon's book

8-year-old Dillon Helbig has garnered national attention over social media for his adorable book "The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis" that he left on a bookshelf at the Ada Community Library.

While visiting the library with his grandmother, he held the 81-page book to his chest as he passed the librarians. Then he slipped the book onto a children’s book shelf without anyone seeing him do it.

"I wanted to put my book in the library center since I was 5, and I always had a love for books and libraries," he told Good Morning America. "I wanted people to read it."

Dillon / Page 1 of his book

After his mom discovered that Dillon left his book at the library, they returned only to find the book was missing from the spot Dillon placed it.

That's because branch manager Alex Hartman and a few coworkers had already discovered and read Dillon's book. They not only loved it, but decided it met the selection criteria.

So, with Dillon's parents permission, they slapped a bar code on it and formally added it to the library's collection.

Now there's a 55-person waitlist to check out the lone copy of "The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis". Library patrons are allowed to hold onto books for up to four weeks.

Dillon, who aspires to become the next big comic book author, already has plans for his next book, "The Jacket Eating Closet" which is based on a true story.

"Every time in kindergarten, I put my jacket in the closet and during recess, it would be gone. The jackets are still gone and that's why I'm making the book," he said.