Have you ever found yourself inspired to write something? Or maybe you’ve always had a calling to create work for someone else to appreciate and read? Well, that goal may be more attainable than you think. In fact, it can be as simple as sharing your work with your Local community and allowing the work to speak for itself. This was actually done by an eight-year-old boy named Dillon Helbig, who became a national sensation after hiding a homemade comic book in a library and getting it published through recognition from his local community (NY Post).  

This young boy had always been passionate about writing according to his mother, Susan Helbig. He was constantly reading and writing comic books for his family and friends and recently felt that his audience should not be limited to just them. One afternoon with his parents at the local library, he took out his comic book titled “Crismis” and hid it between the other fictional comics. A couple of days later, he had told his mom what he did and decided that he would like to go back for the book. When they got to the library they searched for the book, but could not find it. Dillon asked a librarian if she had seen it, the librarian smiled and told him and his mother that the library had been so charmed by Dillon’s attempt that they had added his book to the local library catalog and were allowing people to check it out (NPR).

Interviewed employees at the library had nothing but high praise for this homemade, one in specific said it book “spans genres from fantasy to science fiction to historical fiction.” and said that the illustrations were “imaginative and sophisticated in terms of perspective”. Other children became inspired by Dillon’s story to write their own books. A local children’s book author has offered to work with Dillon to lead workshops for young readers at the library. Encouraged by the public’s reaction, Dillon is very excited to write his next book and hopefully, allow it to be as successful as the first. 

This story is so inspiring, and it shows how education does not matter in terms of publishing creative and imaginative work. The story also allows you to think of all the possibilities that can happen. Adil Ismail (10) adds, “I think that this story is super cool and really makes you think of all the things you can do as a high school student.” If you fast forward a couple of months later, this book now has a years-long waiting list of people just wanting to feel some of the glory connected to this book