To despise what world book day has become

I don't know if it's still the case but in 2019 a survey showed that a large number of parents spent more on costumes for WBD than they spent that year on actual books for their kids.

Image reference!

Me too
with DC 1 I was all ‘ your football annual does not count’
A few years later into it all it was as “ get your Man U strip on
2 of mine were avid readers and 1 was not
WBD did not influence this

I did Diary of a Wimpy kid this year and it took me about 30 mins. White long sleeved top, shorts abd white leggings. Thin gaffa tape and I drew a mask. Done.

What do you mean "what is has become"? I went to primary school 25 years ago and world book day was a thing. Some people went all out, some people went in normal clothes and just took a book with a normal kid who wore normal clothes. It's really really simple.

DD is going as Primrose from Brambly Hedge this year, and will be wearing a yellow dress (already owed), white apron (pillow case), mouse ears (already owed) and my one concession has been a £1 straw hat from Vinted that we’ve cut holes in for the ears.

I hate the ‘cheap shit polyester from China’ thing, so we don’t do it.

Agree with posters saying pick a character who just wears normal clothes and send them in that or make them a generic costume character (cat, witch, knight) and send them with toy sword, ears, witch hat or whatever, then say they're from Tabby McTat or Harry Potter or Zog or whatever. If you don't have any of those things just do the normal clothes thing.

DD’s favourite year was Pippi Longstocking because she had pipe cleaners in her plaits so they stuck out. Stripy tights and normal-ish clothes. It doesn’t have to be a huge chore.

At my youngest dc school, they’ve dialled it down in recent years. When they were younger it was full on costumes, home made encouraged, loads of stress. By junior school they just say non-uniform and bring your favourite book. Much prefer it.

My dd is going as supergirl for the 3rd year in a row 😅

I mean there’s loads they can do that’s easy. Most books for kids involve at least one kid who wears normal clothes (not all but many).

The problem comes if the school puts too much pressure on to “win” or makes it in any way competitive I think. It should just be for fun.

It's "Encourage a love of reading by dressing up in crappy outfits imported from China Day" in many cases.

Just seen this as must have posted at same time - great minds and all that!

I know of a few schools locally that are making it optional - including an option to just wear comfortable clothes, so those who don't want to / can't dress up can still go in without uniform.

At DS's school the theme is Beatrix Potter. His interpretation of Peter Rabbit is going to be blue hoodie, some beige cargo trousers and some bunny ears

I was an English teacher so I actually do like WBD and always make an effort. However, my eldest hated dressing up so I got into the habit of finding characters with outfits that could be replicated easily with normal clothes and a couple of accessories. That way even if I have to buy new clothes, at least they are real clothes and can be worn until they grow out of them.

E.g. Peter Rabbit - brown joggers and t-shirt, blue hoody (I added a hat with ears but I had to knit that as couldn't find one).

Coraline - blue jeans, stripey long sleeved t-shirt, yellow raincoat.

Luna Lovegood - patterned dress, pink denim jacket, blue leggings, a couple of accessories like the weird goggles and a wand.

There are also a fair few characters that go about in their pjs so that's always an option too.

Keep them off and claim you’ve sent the in as God from The Bible.

I assume the dressing up is to make books seem fun to the kids who don’t like reading. I doubt it works…

Must you go along with it? What would happen if your DC wore whatever they usually wear to school?

He could go as one of the famous five and just wear a t-shirt and jeans.

I just used to send them in scruffy clothes as Charlie Bucket, make a golden ticket and give them a big bar of chocolate for the teacher to share with the class.

In my experience, World Book Day costumes fall into 3 main categories:

1. Superheroes. Usually a bought Spider-Man costume.
2. Generic Princess
3. Famous Footballer, achieved by wearing a football shirt with the player's name and number on it.

I can't see what any of this has got to do with developing a love of reading.

While some of my colleagues really go for it on World Book Day (the colleague who went as Miss Havisham deserves a special mention for commitment), I always turn up as "generic frazzled old teacher".

It has always been costumes I think? I don’t think there was ever a time that the dressing up wasn’t part of it, although I agree that there’s no need for expensive costumes and I do think they should be discouraged.

Back when I was teaching (Early Years) it would be 95% kids in their favourite Disney princess or superhero costume with no particular reference to books or reading. The schools I worked at changed to either come in your pjs with a favourite book or dress as a ‘wow word’.

DD’s school also does dress as a word (they specified adjective this year). Which is easy enough as you can do own clothes and come up with whatever word works with them - colourful, stripey, comfortable, sporty, athletic, cosy, floral etc etc. Then if people want to do fabulous homemade creations, or buy them a Disney outfit, they can still scratch that itch and find a word that goes with it. Guarantee there will be endless ‘magical’ Elsas and ‘strong’ Hulks etc in evidence. We usually cobble something together from what she owns - we’re going with ‘bejewelled’ because she already has a headband that fits the bill, and there were sheets on stick on jewels for half price in Sainsbury’s so I got a few and she can go wild on an old t-shirt (they won’t stay on very long probably but still).

They also have optional extra competitions - a sponsored readathon, usually some kind of craft thing like decorate a potato as a character and they do extreme read/ send in a picture reading somewhere unusual too. Which feels like a lot honestly, and as much as they say they’re optional, DD is a child who really wants to do everything and will harp on about it so guess I better find a way of making a potato look like a mermaid before Thursday. I wish they’d stick to the dress up (in a way that allows low key options) and talk about books and skip the rest honestly.

It was brilliant when it started one year my dds school all came in pj's and bought pillows and blankets they bought in books parents were allowed in to read to the children (technically your own child but you had an audience) they read for the day now its just ridiculous

This year my son is going as percy jackson problem is he cant read confidently (13 and sen) so we are watching the series

Our school does it every other year. I was of the "Captain America/Ronaldo shirt is not a book character" school of thought but I'm 5 years into this crap now so DS7 is wearing a Minecraft onesie with an axe he got from a Minecraft magazine and being a character from Minecraft - Into the Game novels.