World Book Day

All this week I have been talking to parents about costumes their children can wear for World Book Day, particularly which costume would be the easiest to make while it still being clear that their child had dressed up. I'm more used to being asked about which book would be best for an eight year old girl who adores ponies, or for books for school projects, so it made for an enjoyable change of pace.

I recommended Harry Potter a lot; put on some glasses (they can easily be made from card), draw on  a lightning bolt scar, and like magic, you have a instantly recognizable costume.

The most low effort costume I personally ever used for World Book Day was Harmony from The Queen's Nose. I wore my normal clothes all day, but made sure to carry around a 50p, which I could present if questioned about my identity. In a previous year I had come dressed as Jasmine from Aladdin, which while I looked good,  turned out to be too cold to wear comfortably outside. I was not making that mistake again.

But what is World Book Day? Is it just an excuse for children to dress up?

World Book Day is about getting children reading and enjoying books (something I'm also very passionate about). World Book Day itself, describes it as a 'celebration of reading'. It's not just isolated to the UK, as the name implies, it's an international event.

Every year official World Book Day books are released, which cost £1.00. They are free with a World Book Day token, which are given to children through schools. Alternatively, the tokens can be used to get a £1.00 discount on other books (including audio books). Most Primary School children get the tokens, as do some younger children through a Nursery, and some older children through Secondary Schools.

This years World Book Day books are:

• Tony Robinson’s Weird World of Wonders: Funny Inventions - by Tony Robinson and Del Thorpe
• Horrid Henry’s Guide to Perfect Parents - by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross 
• The Diamond Brothers in…Two of Diamonds - by Anthony Horowitz
• Hang In There Bozo - by Lauren Child
• Tom Gates: Best Book Day Ever! (so far) - by Liz Pichon
• The Chocolate Box Girls: Bittersweet - by Cathy Cassid
• Giraffes Can’t Dance Colouring and Puzzle Fun - by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Ree

and my personal favorite,

• Alfie's Shop - by Shirley Hughes

You might notice this year there are no offerings for teenagers. To fill this gap Waterstones has teamed up with publisher S & S Children's, to selling two of their books for young adults for £1.00; The Hunt - by Andrew Fukuda, and Girl, Missing - by Sophie McKenzie.

They are not part of the official World Book Day selection, or associated at all with World Book Day. They just cost the right amount to be bought with the £1.00 World Book Day tokens.

But World Book Day isn't just about selling books, schools, bookshops, and libraries, are also encouraged to host events that celebrate reading in the lead up to, on, and after World Book Day. In the bookstore where I work I have run several of these events. Every Sunday I read at a children's Story Time, and I have added in some coloring and craft activities to these. I sourced stickers to give away, along with official activity sheets for different books, and series. I organised a bigger event day during half term, which involved finding characters I had made and hidden among the books in our children's section. I blew up and tied so many balloons to give out as part of the prizes, my fingers were stained the same color as the balloons! The year before I painted children's cheeks and hands with little books and flowers, as part of one of the events.

These sort of events are hard work, but it's so rewarding to see children and enjoying themselves, and talking to them about the books they love, and who their favorite characters are. I volunteered to do something similar for a summer reading scheme with my local library. I was in my teens at the time, and I knew then I wanted to do more things to help more children to become enthusiastic about books.

You can look up events in your area here: http://www.worldbookday.com/events/

What has this got to do with dyslexia?

If I didn't love books, then going through the trial of learning to read wouldn't have appealed to me half as much. To get over those extra barriers to literacy, dyslexic children need to want to read for themselves, for joy as much as for academics, or to make adults happy, especially when they are young and might not realise how important being able to read is.

Things like World Book Day and World Book Day events help get children enthused about reading...they help provide that motivation, the extra spark of interest, that will help dyslexic children endure and overcome their struggles with reading. To me, it doesn't get much more relevant than that.