World- Book the Day off!

How is World Book Day celebrated?

This year, World Book Day is celebrated on Thursday, March 6th.

It’s a big deal for primary schools in Britain, but not such an obvious thing for anyone else. Unless you have a primary school-age child, or you work in a primary school you might not even know it’s happening.

The closest you’ll get to the celebration is seeing a bunch of fairy princesses, cute dinosaurs or awkward carboard train costumes dancing down the road at 8am and 3.30pm. Or your Facebook feed might be punctuated with hilarious photos of children with saucepans on their heads, re-enacting pages 47 and 48 of the Argos Catalogue.

Why can’t we all have a day off and spend it reading?

If it is a Book Day for the entire World, why don’t we just shut down and read? All of us. For like, 12 hours.

The day before, we could prepare some snacks. Have a nice lie-in on the day. Put a pile of books next to the bed. Don’t even bother to get out of bed in the morning, make room for your children and pets if you have them, then just snuggle up reading and snacking.

Dressing up is optional, you can if you want but don’t buy anything special- the money you spend on costumes probably doesn’t go directly back into supporting literacy or literature. Of course the day has been hijacked by companies selling special outfits: Peter Rabbit, Where’s Wally etc- including, ironically, the Argos catalogue itself which has many such outfits.

I think that readers would benefit more by spending time actually reading, rather than choosing a costume. Dressing up might help to engage unwilling readers, ever so slightly, but those who benefit most are those who profit from making parents spend their money on unnecessary outfits.

Instead, make your costume out of old clothes, papier mache and cardboard. Listen to an audiobook whilst you’re constructing it.

Then have March 6th off. Find a comfy place, and read whilst dressed in your home-made Thomas the Tank Engine outfit.

This week, in my Daily Notes, I shall be exploring different aspects of World Book Day and how it is really celebrated around the world. I would love to hear how you celebrate in your country and if you will be celebrating this year.

My illustration today is my quick, painted sketch entitled World Book Day, which I did indeed create one WBD (very naughty as I should have been reading!)