World Book Day is a celebration! It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.
This is the 20th year there’s been a World Book Day, and on 2nd March 2017 children of all ages will come together to appreciate reading. Very loudly and very happily. The main aim of World Book Day in the UK and Ireland 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.
Material will be sent to schools (including those nurseries and secondary schools that have specially registered to participate), packs of Book Tokens and age-ranged World Book Day Resource Packs (age-ranged into Nursery/Pre-School, Primary and Secondary) full of ideas and activities, display material and more information about how to get involved in World Book Day.
Thanks to National Book Tokens and lots of lovely book publishers and booksellers, World Book Day, in partnership with schools all over the country, will be distributing more than 15 million £1 World Book Day book tokens to children (that’s almost one for every child/young person under 18 in the UK and Ireland).
When you get your book token, all you need to do is to take it to your local bookseller (there’s lots of them out there – find your local participating bookshop here and swap it for one of the TEN (exclusive, new and completely free) World Book Day books!
Or, if you’d prefer, you can use your book token to get £1 off any full price book instead. And if you’d rather get an audio book, that’s fine too! It’s your choice, just as long as the book or audio book costs at least £2.99
It’s all about getting kids closer to the books and authors they already love, and letting them discover more books and authors they’ll love every bit as much in the future.
We can get involved as grandparents or just book lovers to pass on to the next generation the joy and excitement that can be got from books.
Do you remember the pleasure that you got from a book as a child? In our day there were no tablets or electronic book reading devices but there was never a shortage of reading material from comics to libraries and there was always one Auntie who gave you a book token for your birthday. I plan to encourage my grandchildren to read and have access to stories in whatever form and to read to them when I have the chance. A bedtime story is still a treat in my house and the pleasure of snuggling up with a book and a relaxed child is a cherished memory.
For more information go to www.worldbookday.com/books
What were your favourite children’s books. Do you share them now? I loved all the Enid Blyton tales from Noddy to the Faraway Tree to the more grown up Mallory Towers and Famous Five adventures.
