World Book Week – What, When and How!

Every March there are a few mornings when commuters get a touch of fairytale magic on the grey drive to work as tiny creatures from favourite childhood stories make their way to school in place of the usual uniformed troops. World Book Week started in 1995 as a celebration of books and reading, founded by UNESCO and since then has become a worldwide celebration of everything literary.  

In the UK, it’s celebrated by school age children dressing up as their favourite character from a book or comic, and being given a free voucher for a book. Find out more about the free book scheme on the official website. Key findings from a National Literacy Trust study tell us that in 2023 1 in 12 children did not have access to books at home. The World Book Week vouchers aim to give every child a book of their own, with the hope of sparking a lifetime love of reading. 

How Does Dressing Up Support Children’s Growth and Learning?

Encourages Creativity  

Dressing up allows children to explore different roles and characters, sparking their creativity and imagination. Whether they are pretending to be a superhero, doctor, or a character from a favourite book, dressing up opens a world of possibilities for imaginative play. 

Develops Communication Skills 

Role-playing scenarios that involve interacting with others can help improve their communication skills as they learn to express themselves, listen to others, and negotiate roles and story lines. 

Boosts Confidence 

 By stepping into different roles through dress-up play, children can gain confidence in themselves and their abilities. Trying on different personas allows them to experiment with different aspects of their personality and build self-assurance. 

Fosters Emotional Development 

Dressing up helps children to explore and understand different emotions. Through role-playing, they can experience empathy and learn to recognise and express their feelings. 

Who Should Your Child Dress Up As?

The big question – you might find if you ask your offspring, they choose something more obscure than you were expecting! Luckily, there are plenty of options when it comes to costumes, whether you make one yourself or buy a high-quality costume that your child can use again and again in different ways. Use the opportunity to reread favourite old books, talk to your child about their favourite characters and what they like about them and get them excited about the possibilities. 

Finding A Costume They Will Wear Again And Again

We’ve just had an exciting drop of brand new character based costumes that are perfect for World Book Week. From beloved Roald Dahl favourites James and The Giant Peach and Willy Wonka to classic Beatrix Potter and Dr Suess characters, there’s lots of premium-quality costumes to choose from. They don’t have to be just one use either, once World Book Week is over, add costumes to a dressing up box that will give your child hours of creative play options . Old clothes, hats and DIY elements can add even more scope for their imaginations to run wild and get plenty of use out of your purchases. 

Doing-It-Yourself

If you are crafty, or have access to a sewing machine or fabric glue, there are a unlimited possibilities for creating something unique and special for your child. Here are some of our favourite DIY’s for world book week! 

There are a bunch of fantastic, easy DIY costume ideas for popular book characters in this article

A printable mask and coloured outfit makes a simple costume – we found a great selection of printable animal masks here. Or how about these Mad Hatter and Cat In The Hat DIYs? 

Quick to Make World Book Day Ideas 

Even with the best will in the world, busy parents don’t always have time to plan elaborate costumes way in advance. If you’ve just realised you need to pull together a costume at short notice, don’t panic! Here are some options to help bring reading to life with a bit less planning! 

• Some book characters have really simple costumes that you might already have all the bits for. Try Horrid Henry – a blue jumper with a strip of yellow fabric glued on and some jeans. Or Paddington Bear, a blue coat, red hat and pop a marmalade sandwich in their pocket.  
• Tailor what you have to fit the theme. Stripy red and white t-shirt? Look, you are Where’s Wally! Repurpose an old fancy dress costume with added accessories, a black cat can easily become Jess from Postman Pat with a handful of letters and a red paper ‘collar’ 
• You can order a costume from our character selection anytime up to 1st March for delivery on Wednesday 6th March. Or pop into our stores for a smaller selection of fancy dress costumes. 

Keep your eye on our website over the next few weeks as we expand our fancy dress selection with even more exciting character and animal options to ignite their imaginations! 

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