Dillon Helbig’s goal was simple. But his marketing strategy—hiding his self-made comic book in a library—was next-level. Now the Idaho second-grader is getting national attention for both his story and his ingenuity.
Eight-year-old Dillon started writing books when he was five. Last winter, he decided others needed to hear his story. So he sneaked his 80-some-page work onto a shelf in his hometown library.
Now the charming handmade graphic novel (novel in comic-book format), The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis written by “Dillon His Self,” has a 50+-person waiting list.
Anyone wondering how an eight-year-old concocted such an idea must look no further than Dillon’s father, Alex. “My dad did this when he was a kid and kept doing it,” Dillon says.
According to a Good Morning America interview, the elder Helbig pulled a similar stunt when he was young. An aspiring musician, Alex Helbig made 100 copies of an album and hid it in various CD stores.
When Dillon’s book antic hit social media, it quickly went viral.
The illustrated book depicts a Christmas escapade that includes an exploding star, a time-travel portal, and a giant turkey—because, well, the main character travels to 1621, the year of the very first Thanksgiving, of course.
Dillon self-published his story in a red-cover notebook and illustrated it using colored pencils.
“I wanted to put my book in the library center since I was five,” he told Good Morning America. “I always had a love for books and libraries.”
Asked why he stashed his comic among the other storybooks at the Ada Community Library, Dillon says, “I wanted people to read it.”
Dillon’s mother, Susan, called the library. She intended to let workers know not to throw the book away—that Dillon meant it as a gift to his local library.
Branch manager Alex Hartman assured her the book was safe. Hartman had the staff catalog Dillon’s book. Now it’s an official library volume, spine stickers and all.
“We’re just hoping that . . . children find inspiration to write their own stories and share those with other people,” Hartman told The Post. “I just think it’s a good demonstration to share with other kids.”
The library also gave Dillon a newly minted honor: the aptly named Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist.
Another book by the aspiring author is already generating interest: The Jacket Eating Closet is based on Helbig’s kindergarten days.
And how does Dillon’s Christmas adventure end? Spoiler alert! It doesn’t. The last page reads: “We’ll be right back in the next book.”
Why? Sharing what is important to you is admirable. Hebrews 13:16 says, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have.” Sharing the gospel should be a focus for every Christian.
1st comment
Lol how cute and cool is that! XD Maybe I should do that with some of my books..... just kidding I don't think people would think a teen doing it would be as cool. But that is quite the idea! I think that would be fun to read it! XD
@ Riley/ This is Bella
Yeah, I don't I could do that! XD I would love to read it too, but I can hardly read his handwriting. :)
3rd comment
I have tried experimenting with righting and I may have good Ideas, but I never get ever CLOSE to competing them.
This is Mylee
Haha :)
The waiting list for it is
The waiting list for it is years long!
Funny!
Funny!
that's so good for him!
that's cool. i used to be into comic book writing but then I just got into plain writing though I would never stick my stories in a library. ;) anyways that is so cool. good for him.
Not bad kid..........
He's way better than me at it.
Cool!
I love to make comics and write, so that is good for him!
10th comment!
Very cute!
cool!
Aww , it's cool he has his own book in a library ! @ JONATHAN M I have the same problem too, I think of a book and start writing it, I get to like chapter 12 and then just quit . I also LOVE reading !
my book
im going to write a book some time in the next 10 years and its going to be a best seller so u litterally are seeing the comment of someone whos going to be famous.
@ All/ This is Bella
If anyone is a writer, here's the link to the WT writing club, Voice of a Storyteller. Share some of your stories, get ideas, or just give your fellow writers tips.
https://teen.wng.org/node/3849
@ Brooke/ This is Bella
Same!
Sounds cool!
I am writing a short story myself, and I really enjoy writing and connect with this kid.
Wow!
He got an award for Best Young Novelist? Wow!
I love writing! Has anyone
I love writing! Has anyone competed in the Young Author's competition? I used to compete when I went to public school. It was SO MUCH FUN. lol I remember in kindergarten I wrote a story about my dog being a superhero and it actually won.
:)
I like, really want to do this now. XD Maybe if I ever finish a book :D Anyway, this is really cool!
the story is cool
wow this kid did all of this so cool i want to meet him my family is a book family and we love to read so i would like to read that book
WOW!!!
SO COOL!!!! I know that people wouldn't think its cool for us teens to sneak a a none published book into a library but i still think its a cool idea. Also i'm writing my own book and i wish it where published! ps im not writing it in a note book with colered pencils ;)
@Morgan H
You won?! Cool, I have never won a writing contest because my spelling is terrible. I cant even spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I'm also homeschooled but that probably has nothing to do with that. Probably.
Autumn Z
that's so cool! i write some short stories. i wrote one once for our Library and it won honorable mention! my friend and i also wrote a Narnia book about Susan after the last battle. do any of you like Narnia? i'm a teen but i'm still obsessed with it! XD here is the story. (it is called Another Chance for Redemption)
It has now been 2 months since the horrible railway accident and Susan Pevensie is still not accepting her family's death. She was sent a book from an old friend and has weird dreams and she must figure out what it all means. Join Susan on her adventure to get her memory back and maybe be reunited with her family and friends.
I
In Which You Learn a Little Bit About Me
TWO MONTHS STRAIGHT OF GRIEVING. I HAD NOT BEEN ABLE TO BELIEVE IT THE FIRST
Time i heard my parents, three siblings, my cousin, his friend, and two good friends of ours, died. Died in a railway accident. By the way, my name is Susan, Susan Pevensie. My siblings, friends, and family were so kind! Dad and Mum were always so kind to all of us. It's hard to think about them. Peter, the eldest in our family, was so kind to the rest of us, and his eyes seemed to reflect the sea. Edmund, the sibling after me, was so just and good natured that it is hard to believe that he was ever mean and selfish! Something changed him, I can't remember exactly how, something to do with a game I think. O, I wish I could remember! Lucy, the youngest, was so loving and kind it was hard to not like her. She had the best smile and she was always so encouraging. Then there was my cousin Eustace, I didn't see him much and had only seen his friend Jill once. Our friend, the Professor, (The one that we stayed with during the war) and his friend Polly had been good friends of ours for ten to fifteen years. I miss them all so much! I looked out the window and decided to take a walk. I looked in the mirror and saw a tear stained face with splotchy lipstick looking back at me. I tried to watch it off to look more presentable, for I wasn't called the Pevensie beauty for nothing, then I stepped outside for the first time in weeks.
II
In Which I Get a Mysterious Package
AS SOON AS I STEPPED OUT INTO THE BRIGHT SUN I JUST WANTED TO RUN BACK
into the house and curl up into a ball. But something was telling me to keep going, the fresh air would do me some good, so I started walking down the sidewalk. Thankfully no one stopped me and asked me to any of their silly parties. Ever since the accident I have felt like just being by myself...everyone keeps pitying me and it's getting quite annoying. I think that they just do that to get me to like them more or something like that. After about an hour I arrived back at the apartment. When I stepped onto the stairs my foot hit something hard. I looked down and saw a package addressed to me. Then I looked at the tag to see who it was from. It was from
Mrs. Macready! I wonder why she is sending me a package. I picked it up and took it inside. Inside the box there was a very old book and a note attached to it. I opened the note and it said:
Dear Susan,
I think that the professor would want you to have this. I found it in his study when I was going through his things. He wrote it a long time ago, during the war. I think that he made it for you and your family, but he never had the chance to give it to you when it was finished. Please try to remember all the fun times that you had with your siblings! We should talk sometime...I know what it's like because you might remember that I lost my husband when our house was bombed back when we were at war. He was fighting to keep his community safe. I give you all my sympathy!
Love,
Mrs.Macready
After I finished reading the letter I took out the book. It was titled “The Many Adventures Of The Pevensie Children”. I flipped to the first page, it read: “There were once four siblings and their names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, & Lucy.” I continued to read and after I was about ten pages in, I fell into a deep sleep. When I woke up I was panting and sweating, I had been in a battle, a Battle for a land called Narnia. Narnia, it sounded distinctly familiar. I reached for the Book that Mrs.Macready had sent me and saw I had left off at a battle. “O”, I said to myself “it was just a dream of this book!” It was strange, the kids had the same names as me and my siblings. Maybe the Professor named the characters in the book after us. hmmm…
✧❀✧
I went to bed that night thinking about why they would have the same names as us, and then it struck me, maybe the children in the book were supposed to be us! No, it couldn’t be. The children in the book journeyed to a magical world where there were talking beasts and kings and queens. An image flashed in my mind of a prince or king looking at me with love. I decided to call Mrs.Macready to ask her what was going on.
III
In Which I Meet An Unwanted Guest
WHEN I CALLED MRS.MACREADY THERE WAS NO ANSWER. EVERYTHING WAS SO STRANGE! I sadly put down the phone. I really wished that she had answered because I had so many questions to ask her! I wished that I could understand what was happening.
✧❀✧
I was just about to make dinner when the phone rang. My heart jumped a mile because I thought it might be Mrs. Macready calling me back! But when I picked up the receiver I was disappointed because the voice that spoke was unfamiliar, it was deep and solemn. “Hi, my name is James.” it said. “I'm afraid I have some bad news for you.” I thought, “ what other bad news could there be?” the man, James,resumed talking. “I'm very sorry but your friend Mrs. Macready died today.” I let go of the phone and dropped to the floor before he could say any more. I had already heard enough. I did not feel like eating anymore, so I went right to bed and I cried myself to sleep. I had the most horrible dream of a witch dressed in a black dress and all these terrible creatures torturing a lion. The lion looked familiar. Then the witch killed the poor lion. I felt so sad for him! Then a thumping sound woke me up before I could see the rest of the horrid dream. I stood up to see what was making the thumping noise, a man was at the door. I went over to open it, the man was tall and was probably handsome, but what did I care? “What do you want?” i said “Hello” he replied, “my name is James Macready, My mom was Mrs Macready.” My eyes widened, I could not believe that Mrs. Macready had a kid! He continued to talk “I had called you the other day to let you know that she died, but you hung up before I could tell you what my last name is. My mom's last words were that she wanted me to help return you to Belief. I am not sure what it means but I am willing to do whatever her wish was. ” “I don’t need help with anything, thank you.” I said and shut the door.
IV
In Which I Learn a Little Bit More About James
THE REST OF THE DAY I THOUGHT ABOUT JAMES MACREADY. HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN SO mean and slammed the door in his face like I did? Why did I not invite him in for some tea? Well, I could not go back and change it. I just had to live with it. Somehow, I wanted to make it up to him. I decided to write to him and ask if he would like to come over for dinner on Saturday night. The next day I decided to read more of the book that the Professor had written. As I read, I kept on having strange flashbacks of the oddest of things. There were these soldiers racing toward me on horses and then I got knocked down, but then a man came to save me….he was the prince that i remembered a week ago!
✧❀✧
The night of the dinner came all too quickly. I didn't even know what to make. Finally I decided on making chicken and a cherry pie for dessert. As soon as I finished getting ready, I heard the doorbell ring. I was so nervous! I walked over to the door and opened it. There stood James, in what must have been his best suit. I invited him inside and thanked him for coming. We started talking about random things and then I asked him to tell me a little bit about himself….” as you know, my mother was Mrs.Marcreay. I never met my father because I was born soon after he died so there's not much to tell about him.” he began. “ When the war began, I went off to boarding school and my mom went to live in the professor’s house to work for him.” As I listened to him talk, I started to drift off into memories that filled in the spots of his stories that he mentioned his mom working at the professors well we were there. But then he said something interesting that made me sit upright in my chair “My mother came to visit me at boarding school one time,” James said “She told me of these kids who had made Quite a racket by getting up in the middle of the night and going into a wardrobe, but she said that one girl was quite sensible compared to the other children, and was very pretty.” I turned red, he was talking about me! “I now know that was you.” he said “my mother told me while she was dying.” “I'm so sorry,” I said Sympathetically. I can’t believe Mrs. Macready had thought about me. Ever since she yelled at me for touching that “historical” artifact in the professor's home, I thought that she hated me.
✧❀✧
The rest of that night went by very quickly...we talked about this and that and before I knew it, James told me that he had to go home. Surprisingly, I think that I liked James more than I did when I first met him! It was so late by the time that he actually left, so I decided to go straight to bed and worry about the dishes in the morning before I went to work.
V
In Which Aslan Takes Me On a Trip
As I drifted off to sleep, I had a dream. in it a great lion called out to me. “Susan, Susan! Do not be afraid, I will not harm you.” Normally anyone would have been shocked to see an animal talk, but it was like I had seen this one before,so I decided to take the chance and trust it. The lion Spoke again, “ My name is ASLAN.” He spoke his name tremendously loud, and as he did, memories came flooding back in front of me and the great lion, Aslan. Ones of children running into a wardrobe and landing in a magical world, Fighting wars, becoming Kings and Queens, Leaving the magical world and then coming back again and Fighting alongside a prince, the same prince from my visions! Then before they left for the last time, the older girl kissed the Prince goodbye. She looked Awfully familiar. But then the girl stopped talking about the world, And acted all grown up calling her family silly if they talked about the magical world. Then her family died in a railway accident, and she grieved for so long. I knew now that the girl and her siblings were actually my family and i. “Aslan!” I cried ” I am so sorry, please take me home! I can't bear it anymore!” and as I looked at the lion, he faded away and I was back on my bed weeping. I had been so foolish, how could i have forgotten all of our adventures and called my siblings silly for talking about it. I cried myself to sleep the rest of the night .
✧❀✧
VI
In Which There Is A Question And A Marriage
James Macreedy continued to come over for dinner every weekend and we got to know each other a lot more. Finally one night he asked me to his house for dinner instead of him coming to my house! When I got there he gave me a tour of his mancian! I was so cool and interesting. While we were eating dinner he got up out of his chair and asked me if he could ask me a question. Of course I said “yes”. Suddenly he got down on one knee and held out a ring! Then he said “Susan Pevensie, would you please marry me?” I was so taken back with this question and I was not expecting him to ask me that! Obviously I said yes!
✧❀✧
I could not believe that today I was getting married to none other than James macready! I was so nervous, and I had no idea what to expect! Then suddenly I lost all of my excitement because it had occurred to me that the bride’s fathers usually walk them down the aisle. I had a picture of my father flash in my head but then Shook it off and thought again of the wedding. I had to tell James, I wondered who I could get on short notice to do it!.Me and James decided to have Uncle Harold Scrubb do it. It was Quite a small wedding. My only family there was Uncle Harold and Aunt Alberta, And A few of my friends from school. James had invited his family and some friends also .The wedding was great. I teared up during the Remembrance moment for our loved ones. After the wedding, we went on our honeymoon to america.
Epilogue
I thought a lot about Aslan, Narnia and my siblings in the years that followed, to make sure I never forgot. I taught my children to love the teachings of Aslan as much as I did all the rest of my life. I had lived a good long life and had 4 children of my own whom we named Peter, Lucy, Edmund and Caspian. Lucy was, as you could expect, very unhappy that she and I were the only girls in the house. Many years later I was 94 years old and ready to go to Aslan's country to finally see the rest of my family again. Then, unexpectedly, that day came. I felt very sorry for my family that was still alive, but I was overjoyed to see my siblings and parents again! And then, the king of Narnia, Aslan came and asked me, “ why did you ever stop believing in Narnia, my dear one?” I Answered him saying, “I got caught up in the ways of the world sir.” I felt very ashamed as I told him the whole story. He listened intently and then said, “welcome home daughter.”, and i went into aslan's country.
@Belwyn
Wasn't the voice of the storyteller article blocked comments?
If not, great! If so, let's use this one instead!
So long
Autumm your anwser is as long as a book
This is such a good idea!
I'm also a teen, and yeah it wouldn't be as cool if a teen did it, but I love the idea. Maybe there could just be a library for kids to put their own short stories in. That would be really cool.
@Jonathan M
yeah that's definitely what happens to me.
lol
thats cool, I also enjoy writing and reading. but whenever I start a book I loose inspiration and never finish it and always has trouble with names lol
here is a link to a small story I wrote in fourth grade (4-5 years ago)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YO4_TTO5hs_8Raj1rviitKx6LJi84LgDohYs...
plz dont judge lol
Autumn Z
like your book steven! its rly good
@Autumn
thx, yours is nice too, will I see your name in the local library anytime soon? And do you have any suggestions?
*suggestions on my writing
*suggestions on my writing
Awesome!!!!
I wanna be an author when I grow up and I’m writing a book now, but an 8 year old!?!?!? That’s incredible!
This is the first chapter
The Quest for Freedom
Chapter 1 How it all Started
Two armies stood in the valley. One led by a 16 -year-old girl, the other led by a admiral who’d been in many wars.
Which do you think will win? Go on, be honest. If you said the admiral, your probably right.
Hi my name is Maggie Wilson leader of the rebellion. Let me tell you my story. As a young girl I grew up in a rather large village that was built just outside of the castle.The Town was ruled by Queen Felicity and King James. However ever since the marriage things weren’t the same. Large stone walls, a little over 10 meters high, where built to surround the area, while never being able to to leave the premises without acceptance from the guards. Not only that the town was infested with them from every where you look, my village was helpless due to this. My father on the other hand was always ready to fight if he had to.
The time to fight came 2 years ago on my 14th birthday. My parents were bakers. The bakery smelled like fresh baked goods. There were stairs behind a door in one corner of the room. These stairs led to the apartment over the bakery that we lived in.
My older brother,Mason, and I were watching them bake a cake together. The cake was 3 layers of chocolate cake and the icing was a light green colored buttercream. Father was about to go and deliver the delicious cake.
"I’ll be back in time to celebrate your birthday,” he told me before he left. Mother went with him that time.
They were gone for a long time. Longer than the usual amount of time for a delivery. Mason went out to try to find them, I snuck along too.
Sneaking along was a mistake. I followed Mason a couple blocks down and slipped around a corner and saw my parents being captured! Mason had been grabbed by a guard and my parents were tied up and being thrown into a cart.
“You’re a fine strong boy aren’t you?” the guard said to Mason, “You’ll be a good soldier.” My eyes were wide with fear. I was unsure how to react, this couldn’t be happening! I thought. The words poured out of my mouth
“NOOOO!!!” I screamed at the guard. Mason turned to look at me.
“Get out of here, Maggie!!!” Yelled Mason. I didn’t want to, but I turned around and bolted towards the woods. Once I was sure that I was safe, I rested by a tree.
I looked around and realized something. I was truly, positively alone.