Little Dillon Helbig, 8, knew he shouldn’t have put his own notebook on the shelf of a library in Boise, in the US state of Idaho, where he lives. “It was an ugly thing,” he admitted to the Washington Post. But the result of the prank was “too cool”, as he puts it.
That’s because there is a list of 55 people to buy a print edition of the boy’s notebook, which has begun to be edited on demand, and a long line to borrow the original at Ada’s community library, where it was deposited.
In the notebook in question, the boy wrote by hand the book “The Adventures of Christmas by Dillon Helbig”, with 88 pages, with everything an 8-year-old child is entitled to: lots of illustrations, a captivating story and a series of mistakes spelling — “christmas” (“christmas”), became “crismis”, and the author’s credit, signed “by Dillon himself”, reads “his self” instead of “himself” (“himself”).
The work is a kind of autofiction in which the author himself places an exploding star on the Christmas tree, and the bang takes him back to the first Thanksgiving – an important date in American culture – at the North Pole.
Dillon placed the notebook on a children’s bookshelf in the library during a visit to the site with his grandmother late last year, and only later told what he had done. The family even went to the place in search of the notebook days later, but did not find it, and the mother went to the librarians to ask if anyone had seen the work and ask that it not be discarded.
Which wouldn’t happen, as the book “was obviously too special an object for us to consider throwing away,” venue manager Alex Hartman told the Washington Post. He had already discovered the book and took it to his 6-year-old son, who considered it one of the funniest books he had ever seen.
“Dillon is a confident and generous guy. He wanted to share the story,” the manager told the American press. “I don’t think it’s a self-promoting thing. He just really wanted other people to be able to enjoy the story. He comes to the library all his life, so he knows how books are divided,” he said.
The library considered that the book could be there, as it met the selection criteria for the collection, with a high quality and fun story, and asked the boy’s family for permission to place a barcode and formally include the book in the library’s collection. place.
Today, the book can be found in the graphic novels section, and Dillon won the Whooini Award for Best Young Novelist, created by the library to honor the child.
Since the story first appeared in the local press, the book began to be printed on demand and the library asked the family to consider an ebook version.
Whatever the platform, fans can already celebrate the news that Dillon is writing a sequel to the story, this time featuring his dog, Rusty. The author will also venture into new themes, with a book about a closet that eats jackets.
Source: Folha
