There is no one who loves to write and does not want to see books written by themselves in libraries and bookstores. But if you really want to realize this dream, you can't do it in eight or ten years. In Idaho, a young writer took a different path, skipping the tedious hurdles and stuffing his manuscripts into public libraries.
That's where 8-year-old writer Dillon Helbig got out, and that's not to mention, it works perfectly.
Dillon is an ordinary boy who lives in Boise City, loved to read from an early age, began writing at the age of 5, and has aspired to become a writer ever since. Not long ago, his grandmother gave him a red-skinned notebook, and Dillon's creative desire was so great that he completed a picture book in a few days.
The name of the book is The Adventures of Dillon Herbig, and the author's name is "Dillon Himself".
It has 81 pages, each with a line of characters and an abstract illustration, about Dillon traveling to different time and space after the stars on the Christmas tree exploded, such as going to the North Pole to play, and spending the first Thanksgiving day before being eaten by an oversized turkey.
He was tempted to publish the amazing Adventures of Dillon Herbig, but the publisher wouldn't give him that chance, and although he thought he was precocious, 8 was still a little too early.
Dillon thought about it and found a clever solution: disguise his notebook as a normal book and stuff it into the library near his home!
A month ago, he came to the Hazelnut Lake Branch of the Aida Community Library to find a route in advance. Then, taking advantage of the fact that the caretaker did not notice him, he hunched over the book and sneaked to the novel area and shoved The Adventures of Dillon Herbig onto the bookshelf.
"I was sneaky the whole time, like I usually eat chocolate." Dillon later told the media that he also demonstrated how this "sneaky" road goes.
At first glance, Dillon's notebook is not conspicuous in the books, because he has a white paper (and a small painting) on the spine of the book, which looks like a labeled book collection. But the next day, Dillon went to the novelty area to find a book, and the Adventures of Dillon Herbig was missing. Dillon was so sad that he couldn't help but tell his mother about this covert operation, and her mother was surprised and called to ask what was wrong with the library books.
It turned out that the Adventures of Dillon Herbig had not been discarded, but had simply moved from the novel area to the graphic novel area.
After all, page by page, it fully deserves the name of an image novel.
"His parents were afraid that if we found the book, we would throw it away. It's a really unjustifiable fear, and if there's any safest place to put a book, it's in our library. Curator Alex Hartman said.
In fact, Hartman and his colleagues read the book carefully, and Hartman recommended it to his 6-year-old son. They thought it was a very interesting story, and the book met the library's book collection standards. So, with the consent of Dillon and his parents, the administrators added the book number of the book to the adventures of Dillon Herbiger and officially placed it on the shelves of the graphic novel.
To encourage Dillon to continue to work, the library also presented the little boy with the first-ever Universe Award (the name of the library's mascot owl) for "Best Young Fiction Writer."
Cristianne Lane, a local children's writer who also heard of Dillon's name, wanted to run a writing workshop with him in the library for the children to write stories together.
Although Dillon did not officially publish a book, in the eyes of everyone, he has become a small writer.
Now, everyone can borrow The Adventures of Dillon Herbig at the Hazelnut Lake Branch Library. At the end of January, there were 56 people on the library's borrowing list who wanted to borrow the book, and now there are more than 120 people.
Dillon had more creative plans, and he began writing The Adventures of Dillon Herbig Part II, this time featuring two puppies he had raised.
He also has a "reality-based" novel, the content of which is unclear, but the title of the book is fixed, called "The Wardrobe of Eating Jackets".
Dillon says he'll turn to game writing after the age of 40, so write a few more books when he's younger.
(Editor: Yin Zi)