Hartman and a few co-workers had discovered and read Dillon’s book - which describes his adventures putting an exploding star on his Christmas tree and being catapulted back to the first Thanksgiving and the North Pole.

Hartman read the book to his six-year-old son, Cruzen, who giggled and said it was one of the funniest books he’d ever known.

“Dillon is a confident guy and a generous guy. He wanted to share the story,” Hartman said. “I don’t think it’s a self-promotion thing. He just genuinely wanted other people to be able to enjoy his story. . . . He’s been a lifelong library user, so he knows how books are shared.”

The librarians who read Dillon’s book agreed that as informal and unconventional as it was, the book met the selection criteria for the collection in that it was a high-quality story that was fun to read. So Hartman asked Helbig for permission to tack a bar code onto the book and formally add it to the library’s collection.

Dillon’s parents enthusiastically agreed, and the book is now part of the graphic-novels section for kids, teens and adults. The library even gave Dillon its first Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist, a category the library created for him, named after its owl mascot.

“His imagination is just constantly going, and he is a very creative little boy,” said Susan Helbig, 41, adding that he regularly entertains her and her husband, Alex Helbig. “He just comes up with these amazing stories and adventures, and we just kind of follow along.”

As luck would have it, the lone copy of The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis has become a book in demand.

KTVB, a news station in Boise, reported on Dillon’s book caper earlier this month, and since then, area residents have begun adding themselves to a waiting list to check it out. As of Saturday, there was a 55-person waitlist.

“We hope that our borrowers keep in mind other people who would like to get their hands on the book,” said Hartman, who said he heard from someone in Texas who hoped to get Dillon’s book through an interlibrary loan. The answer was no.

Usually, if a book has a long waiting list, the library will purchase additional copies, but that is not possible with this one-of-a-kind item. Hartman is talking with Dillon’s mother about possibly creating an e-book version.

Dillon shared some breaking news for his readers: He is working on a sequel to the “Crismis” book, which ends with a home visit from the Grinch and, eventually, revenge on the Christmas killjoy. In it, Dillon’s dog, Rusty, will join the story.

Dillon is also writing a different book about a closet that eats up jackets.

As word spread around Dillon’s school, a cafeteria worker told him she can’t wait to see his book. Some kids in his class have said that they, too, want to write stories.

“It’s pretty neat to see how he’s inspiring little minds,” Susan Helbig said.

The Washington Post

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