World Book Day encourages a love of books and shared reading. Its aim is to:
📚Promote reading for pleasure by offering every child and young person a book of their own
📚Help to form a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and the improve life chances this brings
World Book TokensThrough schools, nurseries, magazines, and partners, 50 million £1 tokens are distributed to children and young people before World Book Day so they can experience choosing one of these books for FREE from their nearest bookseller. Your local bookseller might be on a high street or could be a supermarket. The book tokens are valid from Thursday 15 February until Sunday 31 March 2024.
Booksellers take part in World Book Day because they want to help create the readers of the future. Booksellers buy the books and give them to children in exchange for the £1 token. They give children the chance to experience choosing and owning a book – for free.
📆 Wed 6 March: Drop-in session from 9am – 12pm make Milk Bottle Elmer the Elephant at, plus a visit from Spiderman and a fairy princess for World Book Day at The Avenues Children’s Centre, Tang Hall, YO31 0UT. Pick up a FREE children’s book plus a book token!
📆 Wed 6 March: Drop-in session from 9am – 12pm make Milk Bottle Elmer the Elephant at Clifton Children’s Centre, YO30 6JA. Pick up a FREE children’s book plus a book token!
📆 Thurs 7 March: Drop-in session from 9am – 12pm Milk Bottle Elmer the Elephant at Hob Moor Children’s Centre, YO24 4RF. Pick up a FREE children’s book plus a book token!
📆 Thurs 7 March: Drop-in session from 12 – 2pm World Book Day Crafts & Activities at Tang Hall Explore Library. Craft and activities session to celebrate all things books! No booking is required, it is completely free to pop along and get stuck in! All ages are welcome.
Need a costume idea for World Book Day at school? No need to get in a tizzy about making a costume, as we’ve got 10 easy (yes that means no sewing) costume ideas.
If you’ve got a red stripy jumper – brilliant! Failing that you could stick or draw some red stripes onto a white t-shirt! Dig out a red or white knitted hat (add a bobble if you can) and add some round black glasses made out of cardboard. Jeans or blue trousers will finish off the look. We found this guide and template for glasses.
If you’ve got a cape hanging around from a Halloween costume, then you are halfway there with Harry! You’ll need some round glasses and some face paint for his scar. The rest can be school uniform with the addition of a stripy tie and maybe a fancy looking stick as a magic wand!
Super easy this one and hopefully just a case of digging out the PE kit! White t-shirt, black shorts and a black rucksack or bag if you have one. If you are feeling creative there are some great Wimpy Kid masks on the Book Aid website which you can download and print!
Another good one if you have plenty of Halloween outfits and bits & bobs is a Witch. If you have a witches cape and hat, all you need to do is find some colour-matching clothes. So red top, purple skirt or trousers. If your child has long hair, then a plait is in order. Make a simple wand with a yellow star on the end out of cardboard and job done! Just make sure they don’t take the cat to school.
Easy this one! Get some old, scruffy clothes – ideally trousers and a shirt and make a golden ticket to carry.
If you have a blue dress already, then this one is straightforward! All you need is a red ribbon for your child’s hair and maybe take a pile of books along – perfect for World Book Day.
If your child is a ballerina then hopefully you have everything for this already. Failing that if you have a pink dress, white tights and a hair bow you should be able to pull this one off easily.
Another one where a blue dress comes in handy! Just need a black hairband or ribbon and a white apron that you could cut out of an old white sheet.
The Romans is probably the easiest costume to pull off from the Horrible Histories books. If you’ve got an old white sheet, you’ll need to learn how to wear it as a toga. The internet really is a wonderful thing 😀
Admittedly those tights could be hard to pull off, but if you have a purple dress or even a large T-shirt you can cut into a tunic and a blue top you are pretty much there with your Sophie costume.
Characters that wear ‘normal’ clothes like Horrid Henry, Daisy or Tracy Beaker are great ideas. Just wear your preferred non-school clothes and take in your favourite book!
World Book Day has come up with lots of fancy dress ideas along with instructions for each. Click HERE to download their guide! Plus we created a Pinterest board for you, full of even more ideas!
There are 12 books to choose from this year.
📚 Beginning to read:
📚 Early Readers:
📚 Fluent Readers:
📚 Independent Readers:
The redemption period for World Book Day 2024 £1 tokens is from Thursday 15 February until Sunday 31 March 2024. You can redeem your World Book Day £1 book token at the following retailers:
📚 📚 📚 We hope you have a great time World Book Day and enjoy our costume ideas. Don’t forget to take a photo and share it in the York Mumbler chat group – we love seeing your creations! 📚 📚 📚
