Don’t panic. It’s World Book Day on 4th March 2021 and the challenge is on to kit your child out as their favourite character from a book. It’s not entirely certain that kids will be back in school by then but there’s no reason not to celebrate the pleasures and benefits of reading and have a little dressing up fun into the bargain. Check out the World Book Day website where you’ll find information on how things will be run this year – a little differently as you might expect, thanks to lockdown.
World Book Day will continue to work with schools and nurseries to distribute the £1 book tokens.
They are working with teachers and nursery leaders to provide printed tokens (for those children still in a school/nursery setting) and a new single-use digital version, that can be printed at home or shown to booksellers on a phone or tablet screen. (Make sure your bookseller accepts these though)
The digital token will be emailed to your child’s school, and teachers can then forward/email the token to parents.
The token will also be on McDonald’s Happy Meal boxes through February and March and in some children’s magazines.
Fundraising
Fundraising is a big part of World Book Day and by donating as little as £1 you will help to
- give every child a book of their very own
- change lives across the world by helping Book Aid International to send books to children in some of the poorest communities around the world.
- bring families together through books, for example on family visit days in every prison across the UK
- encourage reading for pleasure for all ages
Find out how you can donate on the World Book Day website.
Dressing up ideas for World Book Day
In case your imagination has run dry and you need inspiration, the following posts should give you plenty of budget-friendly ideas.
And don’t worry, if you’re a craft-duffer like I am, trust me you will be able to do one of these.
And if not, there’s always Cazaar, Smiffys, or Amazon (bad mum alert!).
Keep reading for plenty of useful suggestions and relevant links.
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| Ieuan as Willy Wonka |
There are plenty of dressing up ideas on the World Book Day website here.
You’ll find even more dressing up ideas on the Book Aid International website here.
More ideas to try …
30 last-minute World Book Day costume ideas that you can create at home without a needle and thread
Wales Online have put together some really useful ideas – and you could even re-use the costumes you doubtless had to cobble together for Roald Dahl Day.
World Book Day 2015: What To Wear – The Guardian
A useful collection of real-life costumes featuring photos parents have sent in to the Guardian’s photo gallery.
As you might expect, you’ll find some useful ideas on Netmums and Mumsnet.
If you live in the North East, ChronicleLive has 41 Inspiring World Book Day Costumes From Families in Newcastle and the North East.
More ideas from The Daily Post in North Wales in its piece “When is World Book Day 2017. Some Ideas And Find Out What Is Expected To Be This Year’s Best Seller”
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| Caitlin as Matilda |
More ideas from the Manchester Evening News and the Liverpool Echo and ChronicleLive’s “10 World Book Day Costume Ideas from Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys“.
This list may also help “15 Best Children’s Books Of All Time” from The Telegraph.
But are there any characters you shouldn’t dress your child up as? I recently heard the story of a woman who sent her son to school dressed as serial killer Dexter and then there was the mum whose son’s favourite book was his Top Gear Annual – so she sent him in dressed as Jeremy Clarkson.
And on that bombshell……
Related:
Share A Story With Your Kids This World Book Day
Classic Children’s Stories For World Book Day
Peter Pan or Harry Potter.
I love world book day, as I work at a primary school (MDSA) I get to dress up as well so far I have been Winnie the Witch and Mrs Large, hopefully next year I will dress up as Miss Trunchbull.