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World Book Day is one of the most popular events in the schooling calendar. First celebrated in 1995, the event is becoming increasingly popular with both teachers and their pupils. It is a fun filled day full of initiatives to get children excited about reading, gives children the opportunity to dress as their favourite literary characters and is packed with fun activities.
In most children's eyes the best part about World Book Day is having the chance to impress their friends with their costumes. However, it can be quite a hard decision for the parents when it comes to picking the right costume; what is cool, do they want to look like their friends, where is the best place to buy costumes and how much are they going to be? These are all questions that immediately come into a parents mind, so wouldn't it be great if you could find all the costumes you could ever need and all at respectable prices without having to shop around?
When shopping on the internet, that isn't a problem, there are many World Book Day costume ideas; whether your child wants to wear a fancy dress costume that replicates what was worn back in Medieval times or want to pay tribute to their favourite modern fictional character, such as Harry Potter.
It is a great idea to have your child dressed in a costume that replicates a historic period as World Book Day also has a long history. It was seen as a tradition in the medieval era that every 23rd April (the original date for Book Day) that men were to give their lovers a rose and in exchange women would present they companion with a book. The 23rd April was chosen as this was the date that celebrated the birth and death of William Shakespeare, the birth of Halldór Laxness, Manuel Mejía Vallejo, Vladimir Nabokov and Maurice Druon. It also was the date in which famous literary geniuses Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Miguel de Cervantes and Josep Pla died.
The date was recently changed due to the school calendar; Book Day coincided with the Easter holiday and so this year the event will be held in schools across the country on March 3rd.
One of the initiatives given to children on Book Day comes in the form of a book token. This entitles the child to £1 or €1.50 off their chosen book or the chance to buy a special anthology of books (published especially for the event) for the equivalent of the token. Each year the demand for these £1 or €1.50 anthologies has grown and now children have the choice of a collection of £1/€1.50 books to read. These tokens can be redeemed at any book seller in the UK.
It is a fantastic day to get your child dressed up and enjoying what books can teach them. With the activities and the initiatives that are presented to the children over the course of the day, you may be surprised and find you are picking up a little book worm from school.
