World Book Day Resources

What is World Book Day?

World Book Day is a great way to celebrate reading and is mainly celebrated in the UK and Ireland. The  aim of this event is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own.

It’s celebrated by giving a £1 book token to primary school children in the UK and Ireland, which can be exchanged for a book from a special World Book Day booklist, or for a discount on a full price book. Many publishers also release special editions of books for the event.

Many events are organized on this day, including book readings, author visits, and story-telling sessions, in schools and libraries, and also many bookstores, charities, and organizations also participates in this event.

World Book Day Classroom ideas

Research an authors life and works. They could then give a presentation on the author, share their favorite quotes or passages from the author’s books, and make a book recommendation to the class.

Book characters: Have students create a character profile for one of their favorite book characters. They could include information about the character’s appearance, personality, and motivations, as well as how the character changes throughout the story.

Book cover design: Have students design a cover for one of their favorite books or for a book that they have written themselves using our World Book Day colouring sheets.

Book debates: Divide the class into small groups and have each group read a different book. Then, have each group defend their book as the best one in a class debate. This activity can also be done online through a digital breakout room feature in a video conferencing software.

Creative writing: Encourage students to get creative and write their own short stories, poems, or even create their own comics – you can use our comic book template for this. You could also have a writing competition with prizes and read some of the entries in class or online.

Book-based scavenger hunt: you can use our book scavenger hunt activity for this.

Role-playing: Ask children to act out a scene from a book or create their own sketches based on the characters and events in a book.

Reading marathon: Organise a reading marathon where children have to read for a certain amount of time and compete to see who can read the most books.

Create a book review display using our book review bunting.

When is World Book Day 2024?

World Book Day is celebrated in the United Kingdom on the first Thursday of March, so in 2024, it will be celebrated on March 7th. World Book Day is a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. It’s marked in over 100 countries all over the world and is the biggest celebration of its kind. It’s designed to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. On World Book Day, children are encouraged to dress up as their favourite characters from books, and many schools and libraries also hold special events to mark the occasion.

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