An eight-year-old boy self-published a graphic novel about Christmas but never expected the book to attract a large fen base in the U. S. and overseas.
Author Dillon Helbig wrote the book, titled "The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Christmas", because he "likes Christmas and decorations".
Dillon's journey to getting it published is a pretty interesting story.
During Christmas break, the second-grader penned the book filled with pictures. The book begins with Dillion himself decorating a Christmas tree. The star on top of the tree explodes, and then he is sucked into a portal (入口).
Over just four days, the boy filled in 81 pages of a journal. Then he went to the local Ada Community Library with his mother.
"He wanted to get his story out there so all the kids can read his adventures, " his mother said.
He was unsure how to get his book on the library shelf, so he planned to sneak (潜行) past the librarians.
"There were a lot of librarians, " Dillon said, but he successfully slid his book onto a children's picture-book shelf.
One of the librarians found it. And he said, "Oh, this is kind of interesting. " And he added it to the catalog.
After secretly posting his book, Dillon's graphic novel attracted fans. 56 people were on the waiting list to check it out by the end of January. The number has grown to 88 this week. Demand for Dillon's graphic novel extends beyond the United States. One of the librarians received inquiries for the book from The Netherlands and Bangladesh.
Dillon has wanted to publish a book since he was five. The library gave Dillon an award for "best young novelist", which he does have a lot to be proud of.
