World Book Day panic

[EnglishHamlet]

Please help!
12 year old boy at secondary school.
School announced on Monday that they want kids to dress up as book characters for World Book Day.
I thought WBD was on Friday so I was planning to sort this out tomorrow, as I have the day off work.
To my horror, I've literally just found out they have to go in dressed up tomorrow!!! DS's school are doing WBD tomorrow!!!
Help!
What on earth can I dress DS as?
To make it more complicated, he now wants a 'cool' look, understated, low key, as he says he'd get laughed out of secondary school if he went in dressed as Harry Potter.
It's 8pm, I'm tired, and I'm really panicking!

Does he like any tv shows or movies that are also a book?

I would suggest a character he genuinely likes that maybe dresses normally.

Does he have a black suit and maybe DH has a bow tie? He could go as James Bond??

He could go as Itch from the Simon Mayo books, he just needs a backpack for that (and being covered in soot from an explosion if he'd be up for that!).

He's 12. He should be sorting this out for himself surely? My dds have always decided themselves and got whatever they need themselves.

Black top with dictionary written on it (in tape or whatever you have handy)

What’s his favourite books or shows based on books??

Does he know what any of his friends are going as ?

Scruffy ripped clothes, smear some 'dirt' on his face, bowl in hand - Oliver Twist 🤣

Can he wear a suit and go as james bond?

Honestly I have my thinking cap on but hard to know without knowing what you already have in your house!

Ffs

DS would just go in his normal clothes and pretend to be some generic teenage boy book character that doesn't have a particular look. I cant imagine many secondary school kids going in proper costumes.

Oh god I had hoped this dressing up shit would end in secondary school.
Bloody hate wbd.

Are there any books he’s into? James Bond is an obvious ‘cool’ character or something like a character from a teen-ish book (Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, Divergent) which is likely to work well with fairly standard teen clothes and accessories. Percy Jackson’s is out on Disney now so presumably pretty current.
i would also say by secondary not all the kids dress up or they go pretty low key ;-)

Does he actually want to dress up? Our high school do it every year but it's a minority of children seem to dress up... the staff costumes are always great though.

Midnight gang? Pjs and a bandage.

I'd just send him in jeans and a tshirt and find a book you have in the house with normal kids in it.

Other things that makes it cooler is to dress in a theme with mates. I’d get him to ask his mates what they are going as to gauge a) the ‘normal’ level of effort and b) consider theming in with them.

There's a teen book callled "kick" if he's into football and has a strip.

Didn’t know they still did this in secondary school?!

Anyway primary school DS is wearing his premier league football kit. Every other player has either written a book or there’s a club book. Job done.

He should just wear his normal clothes and say he is Alex Ryder or similar!

Percy Jackson

Jeans. T shirt with open checked shirt over the top. Write on t-shirt with pen ‘Camp Half blood’. Got any beads and draw symbols on some thread for necklace.

The secondary schools round here definitely don't do dressing up for wbd or anything else for that matter.

Does he want to dress up? Certainly at my school, children don’t have to take part.

And WBD is Thursday.

I was thinking the same - was hoping this was the last year I would have to worry about it!

I noted the earlier “ffs” but I thought the same thing. I would’ve just asked my son what his mates were going as and helped him find something he was happy with. It’s not that big a deal - lots of book characters are ordinary kids wearing ordinary clothes.

Yes I'd like to change my original suggestion to Percy Jackson, seems like a good idea ;)