To think this is ridiculous for world book day??

[Applescruffle]

Not the day but some of the ridiculous costumes. It's supposed to be a celebration of books and authors but aalli keep seeing every year is kids in superhero costumes or a character from their favourite film.
There's so many characters to choose from, why can't they choose an actual book? Something written as a book that the child has read and enjoyed.
I've just seen a costume that really takes the biscuit. A young, primary aged child dressed as.... Del boy. Yep, Del boy from only fools and horses.
Come on!!
I'm sure it's very funny and clever but it's not only a sitcom and very much not a book, it's an adult sitcom and very much not for kids.

As a book lover and children's author, I just find it a bit sad.

This is what my ds wants to do, he had it all planned last year but was ill so out the old sheets come this year

I’m sorry but in a cost of living crisis I am not faffing around to make/buy a costume for dc to wear for one day before they outgrow it.

They can wear a dressing up costume they already have (princess/superhero etc)

They have tons of books, them dressing up as a character known predominantly from tv/film has no reflection on the books we read at home or the amount they read or even to gauge their enjoyment of books/reading.

and no I can’t just cobble together something out of the clothes they already have when they have a perfectly good costume that they’re happy wearing.

Del Boy 😂😂

Think DS wants to do Harry Potter ... again!

Glad mine are at secondary now and all this nonsense is in the past.

I am not too purist about it all but YNBU to think a Del Boy costume is a bit of a stretch for World Book Day 😂.

I did NOT say its "only a sitcom". I said I said "It's not only a sitcom, it's...." which is a completly different thing. Please do not twist my words.

I appreciate sitcoms as a art form and I personally LOVE only fools. But it is completly different art to children's books, which are what children are supposed to be celebrating on world book day.
If it was world sitcom day, then fair enough. But it's not, is it?

I’m counting down the days to the end of primary school to get away from this bollocks. Agree with a pp that I’d rather spend the money on books than costumes.

OK but noone has a Del Boy costume lying around. That took effort.

Sorry but I've got enough shit to deal with without worrying if I have something for my kid to dress up in for world book day. Can't they all just go in uniform and find a book about a school?

I agree!

The thing with costumes means that it is focusing on the characters of a book and the story that comes with them.
Obviously then comics, films and TV are also all about characters and stories. It has become more of a day about fictional stories and characters. Which isn't a terrible thing - essentially it's "World Storytelling Day" rather than just books.
You often do get a random kid who pins post it notes on themselves with words written - they are dressed as the dictionary 😂 But that a minority.
A day of celebrating characters and storytelling is quite cool so if a child wants to dress as a character created by a very talented writer - then I am all for it.
(It's a very long time since I have watched Only Fools and Horses so don't really remember much of the scripts but I remember it as one of those sitcoms you sat and watched with your parents - so it can't be too bad for children)

Ironically, I just said on a post earlier today that sometimes I am guilty of misunderstanding things on here. I do apologise. I did think it was a really odd thing for a writer to say!

I’m a librarian, have a houseful of books and DS reads every day. I couldn’t give a fuck if he wants to go dressed up as Spiderman or whatever - what’s important is that’s he’s learning well and loving reading rather than some idea of what’s acceptable or not

Youngest DS went as a different Mr Men character each year

We got face paint and painted him, then added
Bandages for mr bump
Weights for mr strong etc

Easy

Well until it came to getting him cleaned...

^^

It's just a lazy idea for the school. They could do "write a summary of your favourite book" as homework. That would mean kids don't have to own the book or dress up clothes. Just a pen.

I love books more than anything else but I’m not big on reading as a performative thing. I don’t think it matters in the slightest what children dress up as and it’s probably simply that a lot is parents have neither time, money or skills to make or buy new costumes for every school dress-up day and simply dig something out that they’ve already got, or buy something they know the kid will wear to other fancy dress parties etc.

I’d much rather parents spent an hour actually reading to their child and then sent their kid to school in their old Spider-Man costume, rather than spending that hour not reading to their child because they were busy making a costume to let other parents know that they know who Oliver Twist is.

I agree with you about the ready made costumes but I am not arguing with my DD that Elsa is not a book character when we have books with her in, just no point and will only cause upset

Or... get this.. they could not dress up and just read a book for an hour

Shes a book character then

Someone in my daughters class dressed as Mrs Hinch. It was in about Year 2 I think.

It’s possible that they made the costume from a previous fancy dress party, though, and just didn’t want to make another costume when they still had that one.

Our school have never done it thank god. Totally stupid. I can see it was a nice idea in the days of homemade costumes buts it’s now just more mass consumerism and faff for parents who are time poor.

The trouble is, it's very hard to find a costume for most book characters. Either that or you end up unrecognisable.

The gingerbread man we managed, with a few circles of cardboard velcroed on. The Fat Controller involved felt, an inside-out waistcoat and some swearing over cardboard. Horrid Henry was vetoed, too generic. Asterix involved three separate purchases and some swearing over glue (how hard can it be to make a moustache, ffs). Dennis the Menace sounds easy, but involved three bloody hours of sewing black fabric onto a red school sweatshirt...

Hiccup, Frodo and Skulduggery Pleasant I remember with fondess and a small amount of smug

@soundsys Midlred hubble! Meg from Meg and Mog 🙂