Every March, children up and down the UK dress up as their favourite character from a book. They might have the opportunity to hear extra stories at home time and whatever else happens, they will definitely come home with a World Book Day Token. This token is worth £1 and allows a child to get one from a selection of books free. However, if they prefer, children can use their £1 to put toward another book.
Aside from the mermaid costume my daughter is wearing tomorrow, what fascinated me was the history of the day:
The origins of the day we now celebrate in the UK and Ireland come from Catalonia, where roses and books were given as gifts to loved ones on St. George’s Day – a tradition started over 80 years ago.
According to the World Book Day website, the rest of the world celebrates World Book Day next month, on St George’s Day (April 23rd) and yet we here in the UK and Ireland always seem to have it on the first Thursday in March. The argument for this is that the early date assures that schools will be open to celebrate the day. If we have a very late Easter, St George’s Day can fall in the holidays and World Book Day would not be celebrated in schools. This is something they are very keen to avoid.
Here are this year’s £1 books
| Thomas & Friends: Thomas to the Rescue
Egmont
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And five special two-books-in-one – double the fun! | |
Age 5+ flip book |
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| Kitten Chaos, Anna Wilson
Macmillan Children’s Books |
With | Magic Ballerina: The Magic Dance, Darcey Bussell
HarperCollins Children’s Books |
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Age 5+ flip book |
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| The Charlie Small Journals: Valley of Terrors
David Fickling Books |
With | Dinosaur Cove: Battle of the Giants, Rex Stone
Oxford University Press |
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Age 7+ flip book |
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| Grubtown Tales: The Great Pasta Disaster, Philip Ardagh, illus. Jim Paillot
Faber & Faber |
With | Pongwiffy and the Important Announcement, Kaye Umansky, illus. Nick Price
Bloomsbury |
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Age 9+ flip book |
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| Jamie Johnson: Born to Play, Dan Freedman
Scholastic |
With | Young Samurai: The Way of Fire, Chris Bradford
Puffin Books |
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Age 11+ flip book |
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| Walking the Walls, Chris Higgins
Hodder Children’s Books |
With | Medusa Project: The Thief, Sophie McKenzie
Simon & Schuster Children’s Books |
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A side effect of World Book Day is money raised for good causes. Specifically, two different initiatives are supported as a result.
Every year, Book Aid International sends 500,000 books to 12 different countries in . The books are sent to sub-Saharan Africa and Palestine and end up in community, public and academic libraries. Last year’s World Book Day fund-raising in schools raised £54,000 which in turn bought 27,000 books.
The other fund-raising initiative is known as the Readathon, the UK’s National Sponsored Reading Event. Since it’s formation over twenty years ago, Readathon has raised a staggering £22,000,000 for its two charities: CLIC Sargent and The Roald Dahl Foundation.
Twitter: kruby
Hi Eleanor,
I think that this is a great idea! I don’t think that we have this in Canada, although I could be wrong. It definitely should be adopted here though.
When I was a child, I practically lived at the local library and always had my nose in a book. What wonderful stories and adventures I had! These are great organizations to support. The love of reading should be universally available.
That’s so cute that your daughter is going to dress up as a mermaid
Karen
Twitter: GiveABrick
Hi Karen,
I feel very thankful that all of my three enjoy books. The oldest two are learning to read in school (Welsh right now but English too very soon) and now our little Mermaid reads everything she sees when we’re out and about.
It’s worth checking because I was under the impression it was fairly universal. If Canada do celebrate it, remember it will be on April 23rd though
Reading is, in my humble opinion, the most important skill they will ever learn.
Thanks for stopping by
Eleanor