We librarians value patron recommendations for collection acquisitions. These usually come in the form of suggestions verbally presented to us. But 8-year old Dillon Helbig, a patron of the Lake Hazel Branch of the Ada Community Libraries of Boise, Idaho, took a more assertive approach to contributing to his local library.
Last December, Dillon wrote and illustrated an 81-page graphic novel in a blank notebook. Titling it Dillion Helbig's Crismis Adventure, he snuck it into the library and slipped it onto a shelf in the children's area.
Library workers discovered the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. Branch manager Alex Hartman read it to his 6-year old child, who found it, the Washington Post reports, "one of the funniest books he'd ever known."
So, with Dillon's permission, the library staff added it to their collection as a circulating book. It's become so popular among patrons that there is a 55-person waitlist for Dillon's novel about the star on a Christmas tree that explodes, catapulting the young boy through space and time.
This is the sort of demand that would normally lead a library to purchase additional copies. But as it is a one-of-a-kind item, we will have to wait until The Adventure of Dillion Helbig's Crismis is available as an ebook.
-via Jessamyn West | Photo: Ada Community Libraries