Hooray for World Book Day! The day of the year where:

a) parents hurriedly try to find/ make/ buy a costume for their children, while…

b) teachers carefully plan opportunities for their classes to love books even more whilst managing a pack of excited children in fancy dress, dressed as (in my case) a giant red crayon and…

c) children get giddy because their teacher is dressed as a giant red crayon and they get to be superheroes/ princesses/ animals for the day.

It has its critics but for all that, I still love it.Today I got to introduce most of my class to the awesome ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers (a couple had read it before but very few). They brought books in from home to share with their friends. We wrote poetry and made a class book to put in our school library for people to borrow. There was a quiz of book covers and titles (I was amazed that no-one recognised the original Winnie the Pooh illustrations. I know what our book corner is getting next…) Parents were invited to come to school for the last part of the day to ‘Drop Everything And Read’ with their children. And then they all got a book token which they can spend buying themselves a real book to love and treasure at home. What could be nicer than that?

So for all that the dressing up can be stressful and seem like the focus of the day, rest assured that if your child’s school joined in with the celebrations they have had a great day enjoying the world of books. Primary School is all about giving children memorable experiences and positive attitudes and events like this really do create a lovely atmosphere of excitement towards books and reading.

Please join in and let me know what your experiences of World Book Day have been- positive or negative. I love to hear about what’s going on in other schools and settings and I’m always on the lookout for next year’s costume inspiration.