📚 World Book Day 📚

PS My grandson, when he was very little, adored a book callev Dig Dig Digging. Any attempt to read another book was met by “Can we have Dig Dig Digging again?”

I read Peter Rabbit so often to my elder son that I (and he) more or less knew it by heart. Then he became obsessed with Lucy and Tom’s Day by Shirley Hughes.

My younger son didn’t want to be read to. He liked to lie in his cot imagining things. We could hear him talking to himself about them. Then he learned to read himself well before school age.

JamesandJon33

I taught at a lovely school in quite a deprived area. On ‘World book day’ I would say 90% of the boys came in their football kit. “ Well” they would say “I had a football book for Christmas”. Bless ‘em

You'll never guess what my youngest GS wore for World Book Day. Yup, his England Strip.

Over the years my GCs have usually worn more original costumes like Tom the chimney sweep from 'The Water Babies' or Pippi Longstocking.

I read the Dr.Zeuss books to my three boys, they practically new them off by heart. I heard on the radio the other dsy that the average number of books read is 3 a year, unbelievable, I read at least three a month, I thought everyone read a book a month. I buy books and borrow from the wonderful local library.

My children's favourite was The Enormous Turnip, then The Borrowers. I now have a 4yr old granddaughter and when she has a sleepover here she always asks for that enormous story!

My DGC were Belle and a Knight in shing armour. They looked beautiful. 😍

My GCs love Going On A Bear Hunt, Stick Man, Room On The Broom, The Lion Inside, and The Gruffalo.
Though there are many more, these I read the most.

Both of my GC love books and read every day at home and always a bedtime story. Topsy & Tim were their all time favourite. The 6 year old currently enjoys Mr Men books. Apparently Grandad is Mr Muddle and I am little Miss Busy 😂 The 10 year old is enjoying The Worst Witch Books and Lottie Brookes.

I always have a book on the go as does my DH. When we first started dating we used to drive to a beauty spot put our deckchairs up and read, and we still do the same 47 years on😂

My grandson (6) went as Snufkin from The Moomins - his dad’s favourite rather than his ! His dad made the whole outfit including pipe and felt hat and they were both very proud of themselves ..! My granddaughter went as ‘Little Red ‘ - the modern version of Red Riding Hood - grandad made her a huge axe (cardboard and tinfoil) which had to be modified slightly as looked to ferocious for school …! Both grandkids love the Katie Morag stories - great stories and so much to look at in the beautiful painted pictures . Hungry caterpillar was alway a favourite in early days. Grandson has also always loved Beatrix Potter

My 3 year old granddaughter went as 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.
I managed to get a dress from a charity shop for £2.00. I washed it but there was a little mark near the waste band so I made some little flowers and glued them on. She loved the butterfly wings and apparently kept it on all day at nursery. My granddaughter is hyperlexic and has been reading since she was two years 2 months. She sounds out the words phonetically and she does seem to understand most of what she reads. Her mum had told nursery she could read and they just said ' Oh can she' Until one day the nursery staff saw her reading the words on the back of a book with no pictures. So they wrote some simple words on a a white board and she just rattled them off. Then they wrote bigger words like butterfly and caterpillar and then xylophone which she read out loud. They told her mum at home time declaring she could read!
I bought her a new book just this week by Mo Willems called 'The Pigeon has to go to school'. The pigeon tells the reader 'Wait don't read that title!. We had not read it to her and we hadn't seen it on the TV. She read it as tit le (as in blue tit). I corrected her but she still insisted on reading it her way. I will have to work on that. The 1st time we realised she was reading was when she read Emu in a book on animals and she read it as em u. We corrected her then and she accepted the correct pronunciation.
At this rate she is going to be reading the classics in no time lol!

Little grand daughter who is two had her first World book day in her school nursery this year. The children could wear pyjamas. She was going to go in her Winnie the Pooh ones, then Bluey was mentioned but her bright blue onesie (complete with matching soft toy) from Monsters Inc ended up as the chosen outfit. She was delighted. I loved WBD as a teacher and as a Mum and like the idea of nightwear (fir a bedtime story) or a costume. It doesn't need to be expensive. One of my son's went as Noddy and that was a red sweatshirt, navy shorts, a navy beanie hat and a duster as a neckerchief. Katie Morag was always a favourite for girls - kilt, jumper and wellies. All the teachers loved dressing up too!

My GD’s school doesn’t do dressing up for WBD now. They have a number of children with special needs who don’t like things such as dressing up and families who are struggling financially so they have a pyjama day instead. Even the teachers join in, which the children love!

My DD favourite book was by Jill Murphy and was called "Peace at last" I bought few of her books for my grandson last Christmas he loves being read too. They did do Book day in his nursery and school but NO dressing up , which I thought was brilliant as it is supposed to be about books not dressing up. They could all choose a book from the book corner to look / read.

My 2nd cousin went to school as the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland easy costume just a pair of rabbit ears and a few lines for whiskers and black nose. DGD went as a character from the hunger games. She loves reading and reads every night

My Gdcs thoroughly enjoyed the day - Gdd1 made a brilliant Cruella de ViL, Gds was Chewbacca (Star Wars) and Gdd2 was a Triceratops.
I don’t think dd bought anything, all costumes were borrowed or had previously come from charity shops. Apparently the school holds a ‘costume sale’ in advance, everything very nominally priced.

I couldn’t be without my books, I have bookcases all over the house
The only snag it takes me a while to finish a book after losing my left side vision due to measles when there were no inoculation against the condition

madeleine, how I agree with you! Books are the backdrop to my life. I am passionate about libraries, read at every opportunity, and have done my best to pass on my enthusiasm to my children, grandchildren, and those I taught.
Books can be powerful and subversive, or comforting and diverting - and, with a library card, completely free..
Where I taught, WBD was celebrated by everyone coming in their nightwear , as a nod to " a book at bedtime" - so no cost to parents. If they wished, the child could bring a favourite book to talk about, but this was an option.
I loved seeing my GC setting off as Supertato, The Worst Witch, etc.
The secondary school my 11 year old attends suggested authors as the theme.
My GS went as Adam Kay.
As you can tell, I'm a WBD fan...oh and the token gives every child the chance to own their own book.
What's not to love?

My daughter’s favourite book when she was two was The Tiger Who Came to Tea. I had to read it every day that summer. She went on to be an avid reader.

I have never been any good at fancy dress, so World Book Day costumes were as simple as possible. One year, we had some nice dressing up costumes so we used those. My middle son was a knight and my daughter was one of many fairies. My oldest son was at a special school and they didn’t really go in for dressing up. I think one of the most imaginative, yet simple costumes was one an eight year old piano pupil of mine wore several years ago. Her favourite book was Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree and she dressed up as the Saucepan Man. She had a black top and trousers, a saucepan on her head and two more around her shoulders. She made me smile when she told me that she had to take her saucepans off when doing her work.

I am against all these "special days" there are now so many of them, that there is hardly a day left that isn't World-something-or-other-day!

And in any class of children there will be some whose parents cannot afford the time, or the money to help them dress up; some who because they are dyslexic don't read bedtime stories for the children, etc.etc.

Such children feel miserably different on these days.

Encouraging children to read should be done as part of their schooling without involving them in dressing up, or added expense to homes that cannot afford it.

Snow White

Spanish Book Day is the 23rd of April and is celebrated as Saint George ( Sant Jordi ) and in Barcelona and Girona, a book and a red rose are given to special friends and lovers.

Beautiful holiday without a doubt.

I must be the only World Book Day anti person, not the concept itself I’m an avid reader myself , all my children could read before starting school however it’s the dressing up bit I disapprove of, if they must have a WBD just get the children to talk about favourite stories books etc , those who can write their own stories, even acting them out. Parents have enough to deal with, enough pressures on money and time without this dressing up day. Before anyone posts I might add I’ve worked both for a renowned publisher and as a TA in a primary school so I’ve seen both sides, especially the parents moaning in the playground.

I taught at a lovely school in quite a deprived area. On ‘World book day’ I would say 90% of the boys came in their football kit. “ Well” they would say “I had a football book for Christmas”. Bless ‘em

They als loved Mog and Topsy and Tim.

Does anyone remember A Wet Monday ? It began, Drip, Drip, Drip, if I remember correctly. My three loved it.