to wish World Book Day should fuck the fuck off!

[Toraleistripe]

Grrrrrrrr. I'm hate it. I am all for celebrating reading and books but this yearly dress up activity at school drives me mad!

I have 2 Dc, they both want me to buy ready made costumes which will cost £30 or more! So not happening. I will still have to cobble something together though. I can't be arsed. We don't have anything. I have scoured the Internet for ideas. Kids either don't like the ideas or I don't have the stuff.

Sod off WBD!

It's my dd's first wbd and I'm really enjoying it! She wants to go as Lily Bobtail from Peter rabbit. Pink dress and bunny ears & tail - sorted. Could also be to do with being on maternity leave as well though!

I hate this too, I have one going as girl from Harry Potter, one going as matilda (blue dress she already has and blue bow hairband) and the smallest going as cinderella as she got a dress for Xmas (but she has requested frozen instead)!!!
I refuse to spend £50-£60 on costumes!!!

Our school don't do it.

I'm so happy.

DD's school arent dressing up this year, all they are asking are for "good as new" books so they can organise a book sale.

Last year, I sent DD in as Elsa. Bollocks am I scrambling around for a costume for it.

I know it's a PITA for so many reasons.... but I still love it.

My boys are Y6 now, so this will be the last one and I'm strangely wistful about it. They've been Thing One/Thing Two; Harry Potter and Dumbledore (I made a BEARD out of a MOP, dammit!); Wally and Greg Heffley (this was the point at which they stopped letting me enforce twin-friendly themes); Oliver Twist and Willy Wonka; and last year, Tobias 'Four' Eaton and Hermes. This year I'll be sending in a Hobbit and Doctor Watson. None of it took oodles of effort, and I spent next to nothing on any of it (well, apart from the mop).

I really enjoy seeing what all the other kids (well, ok, parents) do, too. Shop-bought; football kit; Disney princess; whatevs.

Our school have put a ban on Elsa costumes

In my defence on Elsa, DD and another girl were the only Elsa's. Clearly, they have lazy parents.

Am slightly gutted I couldn't persuade either of mine to go as Arthur Dent, despite loving the books. Pyjamas, dressing gown, towel, Don't Panic slipcover on a book, dark glasses. Sorted.

One year ds2 had to make a 'story hat' instead of wearing a costume... except nobody had any idea what a story hat was and even google and pintrest weren't much help.

Apparently you were supposed to get a hat and decorate it with pictures from the key moments of the book so that you could use it to describe the book to somebody else...

As it was, ds had been ill beforehand and I had a huge roll of paper from the scrap store, so just folded him a giant paper hat and got some thick sharpies and wrote all sorts of words relating to stories (plot, beginning, end, etc) over most of it and 'Another story waiting to be told...' around the brim which took all of a couple of minutes. ds was happy as he hates wearing costumes (he's been known to ask the teacher/ta if they thought he was stark raving mad in the past when asking him what costume he would be dressing up in - along with the rest of the class - for various things. oops. )

This year, now both are in junior school. No dressing up - they have to wrap up their favourite book to take into school and put clues on the outsides as to what it might be. they also have to take a cushion in (which they don't say directly, just mention in passing about when they're sitting on it) from home to sit on to discuss aforementioned wrapped book. Separately they are also running a book swap - you can take one or two books in to swap with others. So that's going to be fun - how many kids are going to come home without their favourite book because it inadvertently or deliberately got stuck in the swap pile instead of their own bag... I hate book swaps - we don't have books hanging around waiting to be swapped!

This is the brave new world of edutainment. Parents, if you don't like it, please complain in writing to the head teacher.

(Bitter retired school teacher.)

Ds1 (15) says he will manufacture a paper machie (sp?) pigs head, wear a blue suit and go as a possibly fictional event from a recent biography.
I suspect that if he could actually be bothered to do it, it would be hilarious and quickly earn him a detention...

My DD is insisting on being Voldermort. Oh my. She has waist length hair for a start....now, shall I cut it all of???

Easiest and best option for World Book Day=Jesus. Pair of sandals, smock and a bible, done! And let's be fair, whether you believe it or not, it's a cracking book!

Our school have asked for a book to be donated for their library instead, much easier!

I love books
But I can't see the point of either this or the World Book Night...which seems to consist of adults who love reading giving each other books
Which we do all the time anyway?
So confused

I hate it too - Fuck off!!! Luckily DD8 said she wants to go as Sophie from the BFG, so she'll be going in her nightie

Yanbu! I dread this every year.

Why do you need to dress up to show you like reading. If it's to get the kids to buy books from the school (which you can get cheaper elsewhere) then instead bring a new book in rather than spend it on a naff costume that will never be worn again! Some of us are rubbish at craft so making a costume is even worse!

Hate, Hate, Hate it! So stressful!

This was one of the reasons I was so glad when my two youngest finally hit high school. No more of this crap.

It's not particularly inclusive (I certainly couldn't afford it) and, however well intentioned, it did always turn into a sort of competition between certain parents.

And as an ex teacher I'd say it does bugger all for improving literacy and it won't make kids want to read books. So totally pointless. It has no educational value. If schools really cared about it, they'd encourage parents to spend that money on books not stupid costumes. Saying you can make something, is also not very inclusive. Many parents don't have the time for that and it's also not cheap or free (and I say that as someone who can sew and make pretty well anything from scratch, I still wouldn't waste my time making dress up costumes - end of).

Dd2 is going as the naughtiest girl in the school (Enid Blyton) in school uniform, untidy pigtails and freckles. Dd1 has chosen Katy from What Katy Did (maxi dress, winter boots and some sort of bonnet that she will no doubt create herself from a ream of paper and 3 rolls of sticky tape)

I've decided my DS is going as the invisible man!

For the poem one do you have a Winnie the Pooh teddy as he can dress up as Christopher Robin. Actually, that'd work for books too!

"Many parents don't have the time for that and it's also not cheap or free"
It absolutely can be cheap/free, and it needn't take lots of time (both my partner and I work). And of course it won't magically 'improve literacy'; but it can be an enjoyable way of celebrating books in an environment that already has a reading culture. At our kids' school it's part of a week of activities that also includes sharing reading with parents at school; several author visits; a book sale; and a book swap.

At the same time, though, it shouldn't be a burden or a pressure for kids or parents. And it certainly shouldn't be little more than an unnecessary exercise in shopping.

They should just rename it World Costume Day because that seems to be what schools focus on.

If schools had any imagination they might ask children to bring a favourite book in from home and tell the class about it or (for older kids) write a diary entry for one of the characters or something.

But no. That would involve something vaguely educational. Makes far more sense to indoctrinate pointless fancy dress.

And its not even as though all the kids want to do it.

Ds is a stormtrooper and won't consider anything else :D

We received a letter saying that kids were just to dress in normal clothes. Not as a character. They can still take a book of their choice in.