It was an ordinary day. Reading about an 8-year-old boy from Boise, Idaho who wrote a book that he wanted everyone to read. He spent four days writing and illustrating 81 pages of an empty journal booklet telling how he was transported back in time after a Christmas tree ornament on the top of his tree exploded. Wow! Pretty neat idea for an 8-year-old. But, what was even more amazing was that he slipped his book onto a shelf in the Boise public library during a visit to the library with his Grandmother.
 |
| Dillon's large book |
He said when he got to the liberry (his pronunciation for library) he had to sneak past the libberians to find a spot on a shelf for his large book. During the next month, his book, titled "The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis," was one of the library's most sought after titles. And, it also inspired children in Boise to write their own stories. The book had drawn so much attention that it had a waiting list of 56 people by the end of the month. In the Boise library you are allowed to keep books out for four weeks, thus with the long waiting list it just might take years before everyone gets a chance to see it.  |
| Dillon working on his book |
And, what made the book so interesting and sought-after was the fact that the librarians played along with checking out Dillon's book. The manager of the library, Mr. Hartman said it belonged on the library shelves since it does have such a good story. They placed it alongside the graphic novels, since it had so many page-length illustrations. They did mention that the book had plenty of spelling errors. The book started with Chaptr 1 - "One Day in wintr it wus Crismis!' (Do you have any idea how tough it is to type a story such as this with all the spelling mistakes? My computer doesn't allow me to make them unless I type everything twice).  |
| One of the pages in the book |
The book tells of a time-traveling adventure after the star on the tree explodes. Santa arrives and Dillon tells of a tree portal that takes him back in time to the first Thanksgiving in 1621. His imagination is unbelievable. Eventually the Idaho Press and the Boise television station picked up on the book which inspired others in his class to write their own books. Many of the children asked if they could write books and journals for the library. Another local author is working with Dillon to create a children's writing workshop at the library. Book publishers had been asking the library about officially publishing the book. As for Dillon, he is now working on his next book to be called "The Jacket-Eating Closet" which will be based on his own closet. So, who says that children today aren't creative? It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment