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.

FFS

Yes but Del Boy was not written as a book character!!!
Neither was Elsa really, but you can at least argue that the original snow queen she is based on was a book!!
Del Boy just isn't. There's no way around it.

The problem with dressing as a book character is that school doesn't seem to incorporate any 'talk about your book/character element to the day. Last year dd went as Bella the Bunny Fairy, and her teacher addressed her as Tinkerbell. This year she's given up and is going as Elsa. Which i'm fine with since it saves sorting a costume.

Because most parents are busy enough without having to worry about this crap. Don’t get me wrong, I love books, my children love books, we visit the library weekly, read together daily. But world book day? I’m putting them in whatever costume I can pull together without spending money. I normally manage to find a book that goes with it, but I’m not going to judge someone who puts their dc in a superhero costume. Unless you’ve lived their lives, you shouldn’t either.

He's in a book. Deal with it

Yes I agree they need to say dress up
AND bring the book in, or explain the story to us. Needs to be linked back to the book.

I must admit I do love it, I love books and I love a bit of fancy dress, but we always create costumes from charity shop finds or “home made” out of clothes we already own. The plastic ready made costumes are fine if they already own them or will wear them more than once. But this year our school has made a point to say, please don’t feel the need to spend any money on this, it’s just for fun it’s not a competition.

I will not. Can't make me.

Is it a book for primary school children though?! 😂

Fair enough! :)

He's in "where's del boy" which looks a bit like where's wally. Is where's wally allowed?

My son asked to dress up as Jesus when he was in Y1. I obliged and he won the costume prize! He also went one year as the (now banned) :Brian Wong who was never wrong', as he's a total know-it-all.

On another note, I think it's a great memory. I know parents are too busy or whatever, but my kids remember their WBDs very clearly.

My school celebrates world book day every year but we haven’t dressed up for a long time. We have a pupil council who help come up with ideas on what to do instead, we’ve had bring a book, swap a book day, bring a toy and a book for a teddy bears picnic and we’ve had lots of interaction of older children going to read with the younger ones. Lots of schools I’ve worked in are moving away from the dressing up angle as they don’t want to stress parents or encourage anyone to go buy a new costume.

My son wore ordinary clothes and when asked who he was dressed as he threw paper aeroplanes at them and said he was Horrid Henry!

Dead easy, and a bit of fun.

I agree. Just another bloody job. And doesn't encourage kids to read more imo.

It's not something I can get worked up about.

Most children already have superhero costumes so it makes sense to use them.

It just simply won't be a massive priority to some parents and if little Mary wants to be a superhero, she can be a superhero. I wouldn't pick that battle either.

It's unfair on kids who haven't got decent pajamas. There will be some who sleep in holey pjs. And they might not own a bedtime story.

If a poor child is that neglected, it's unlikely that their uniform is any better. I hope no children come in like this, but if they are, theres not really an excuse and this isn't a normal part of 'growing up on a low income' in 2024. So many people are giving away children's clothes for free.

Just send them in normal clothes and they're dressed as muggles.

I like this. Book themed activities.

My girls loved book day. Unfortunately for dd1 they didn't dress up when she was there, because she'd have loved it.
Dd2 adored the dressing up aspect. I remember the argument I wasn't going to dye her hair red as "Anne of Green Gables" because she had an important presentation that afternoon.
The more dressing up the better as far as she was concerned. She'd give her orders a couple of months in advance and we'd go through the fabric/old dressing up clothes to meet her exacting ideas.

Ds loathed any dressing up in any form. Even wear red for red nose day sent him to vomit miserable with anxiety. I have to be totally honest and say I don't understand. Put him on stage and he'll wear tights and a tutu, a pink bunny outfit, or a tunic, or a Shakespeare outfit... He'll go in front of around 20 000 people for his next show and he has no issue with his costume, which I'm sure his 6th form colleagues would tell him is basically a dress.
But from preschool days even "wear a colour" sent him into a tizzy, and the junior school loved to always find a theme for every non-uniform day. I begged them not to, or to give an option of bringing something in, even doing a project, but they wouldn't listen. So he missed almost all of them.
He managed one hour of one World Book day; year 4, I think it was. The others he managed to vomit copiously on the way to school for the bonus of 48 hours off.
In year 4 he went as his current favourite character: Biggles. He looked adorable in a little RAF outfit I made. Everyone thought he looked adorable. We walked into school with all the parents stopping him to say how lovely he looked. As each parent told him this, his expression got darker and darker. I have a lovely photo of him outside his classroom looking like he'd just been told he'd been captured by Von whatever the Nazi baddie was in Biggles, and his Spitfire blown up.
I got a call an hour later to say he'd vomited... but he had won a prize for his costume.

Cost, time and ability. Not everyone can juts throw together an outfit, or buy all the appropriate bits to make one. Whilst I agree with you regarding superhero's, etc- I'd rather they scrapped the whole freaking thing instead. It's a definite divide between parents with time, skills or money, and those who forget or have less funds and have to cobble together something last minute.

I'm so tempted but it's a C of E school and I'm not sure how it would go down!!

DD loves Julia Donaldson and she's going as either stick man, gruffalo or room on the broom. Probably room on the broom.

When is it?

I'm sending my DC in as Peppa Pig

Oh come on.

No way 🙄😁

Richard The Third was one a friend's son went as. :)

Mine has suggested going as Matilda's friend- so school.uniform.

A mate was praised when she made a spider costume as opposed to buying a supermarket outfit.

I agree Del Boy is ridiculous, but I think the reason for the superheroes and princesses is because parents don’t want to have to spend money on a costume for just one day so the kids wear something they already have. Yes, parents could reduce the cost by doing ‘home made’, but that requires time and a bit of skill to make it look good (I have neither of these things). Plus most kids here have a bought costume so no one really wants to stand out in the ‘home made’ one. I agree it should be banned.