To say it should just be dressing up day?

[Ulysees]

World book day where I live is really just dressing up day. Hardly any are from books. The odd Harry potter here and there.

To be fair I once forgot and dressed ds1 as Dracula. He loved it. But at least it was a book! 🤣

What you saying is it’s not the “right” kind of books.

https://www.waterstones.com/series/minecraft

Yeo one of the local schools has even had to tell the parents that football strips aren't allowed. They should do the same for superheroes/princesses in my opinion. Make kids and parents actually use some imagination and have some fun with it. I would also ban shop bought monstrosities but I'm not a head teacher lol. The stats for kids who don't read at home are shocking.

@JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon we thought so. Ds1 is 26 now and has always read a lot. It was the other parents faces 😂 He probably went overboard with blood knowing him?

I do think it should be world book Day but not so much stress on what they wear. Definitely keep giving the book tokens. I should have made that clearer. I think it was seeing a Minecraft character that made me post.

I feel sad for those who's parents/carers forget. I once helped out at a Victorian day and the ones not dressed up looked so sad. Now that IS a pita for parents!

My DD's former primary school got so totally fed up with all the football kits, unicorn onesies etc that they sent out a strongly worded email in advance - NO onesies, NO football kits and NO 'Disney' outfits, unless they directly related to a traditional book, like Snow White. Also NO video game characters, regardless of whether they also appeared in an annual or similar. Loads of parents were furious, but it did make everybody take it a bit more seriously.

I didn't know they did books. I stand corrected. Hopefully the dcs will use their tokens to buy them.

When my ds was at school, he hated any kind of costume, so he just went to school in his normal out of school clothes-jeans and jumper type of thing.

When he was about 8 his teacher was a bit of an arse and had asked him what character he was supposed to be -in what would have been a snippy tone (I knew her well) and his response was “a boy in any book you like”

Schools are needing to stop participating in what has become a money making exercise for all the supermarkets etc selling costumes.

World Book Day-yep let’s draw attention to reading, but just make it a non uniform and “bring your favourite book” day.

My 2 year old is going to nursery as Peppa Pig. In my defence, she has about 15 Peppa Pig books🤣

That's a much better idea. It makes World Book Day be about actual books.

The "dress in a Batman costume bought on Amazon" activity does nothing for kids' actual reading.

How many kids see their parents engrossed in a book or even talking about books? Kids copy - it's how they learn. They want a phone because most of them see their parents endlessly scrolling social media while watching telly. So they end up doing the same.

@Lifebeganat50 he sounds fab. That's something ds1 would have said. But it would have crushed shy ds2. He isn't now but was at school.

@BarbieDangerous I bet she looks adorable 😍

The kids I know, all know plenty of characters from books. They just want to wear their favourite dress up costumes instead. I could spend an evening making a Gruffalo costume for my DD but I know she won't wear it and will insist on her pink dress. Why argue with her. She was super excited to go to school today and has been looking forward to today since Monday. In my opinion that's all that matters.

We used to ask the children to bring in their favourite book and we'd choose some of them to read out to the class throughout the day. Most of them were unreadable Disney or superheroes type stuff - then the kids got upset if their book wasn't chosen. Very few were dressed up as characters from, or brought, proper books.

Exactly. Super heroes & Disney princesses are technically characters from books... parents aren't being lazy - I'm not going to force my 5 year old to wear a costume that she doesn't want to wear. I'm not going to ruin things by arguing with her over what she picks.

I find stuff like this more pathetic to be honest. They’re kids let them dress up. If the only thing your child wants to read are football annuals or books of Disney films at least they’re reading. Not everyone has the capacity to hand make a Paddington bear outfit.

I think people whinging about the quality of peoples WBD outfits and ‘lack of effort’ have little insight into peoples lives. Some children don’t have sheets on the bed, don’t own any shoes other than school shoes, don’t have books at home. Some parents are run ragged working 3 jobs to keep afloat so if they want to buy a cheap outfit from Tesco I won’t judge them, if they want to wear a superhero outfit they got free on fb marketplace I won’t judge them.

I read the back of a Julia Quinn novel the other day, she acknowledges her dad, and ho he inspired her to write. She was a fan of sweet Valley High books as a teen- of the equivalent and he wouldn't let her read such trash without good reason so she argued it was research for writing her own romance novel some day. She wrote a chapter to prove it to him and he relented. I'm of the opinion reading is reading and to cultivate a love of reading is more important than a love of literature - if you can do both lovely. But I think reading should be the primary focus, whether it's Dracula, Harry potter, Minecraft or Room on the Broom.

Our school did bright colours in honour of Elmer the elephant. Makes it affordable for parents as children have bright clothes to wear. We've also had pyjama day as most children have pyjamas

@RaraRachael what made the Disney/Superhero books "unreadable" ?

The argument of “not from a book” doesn’t really work now. If something is successful, it will be turned into TV, games and books.

Winne the Pooh and Paddington started as much loved children’s books and have TV series and films. There is merchandise and games with those characters. Harry Potter obviously started as a book series and is one of the most famous wbd costumes but is a huge franchise of films, soon to be TV, games and merchandise. However, Bluey, Hey Duggee, Paw Patrol have all started as TV shows but because they are successful have had books made from them. We’ve got books for all of these.

The purpose of World Book Day is to get kids excited to read and the opportunity to explore books. If that means seeing a character on TV or in a game and then seeing that character in a book, then so be it. DC loves books but I’m not getting into the snobbery of Bluey/Hey Duggee/Paw Patrol is not a real book but somehow Winnie the Pooh and Paddington are. Books are books and I don’t care what they read. They are still young (as you can tell with the characters we have) so don’t have much say in their costume and it was cobbled together with what we have at home.

World Book Day is so commercialised now (look at all the supermarkets selling piles and piles of crappy nylon costumes that will be worn twice if that) it’s basically Halloween in March.

And I know the wholesome middle class parents will say it’s not necessary to buy a costume when you can cobble something from one’s dressing up chest what if you don’t have a dressing up chest but for those of us lacking in time, ideas and inclination, you just can’t help but head to the supermarket.

The only winners are the retailers in the end.

You’re kidding. That’s very sad.

Aw thank you, she looks so sweet! Even had a little teddy in her pocket haha

But what does banning football kits/Disney dresses/supermarket costumes in favour of fun, imaginative, home-made costumes actually have to do with the promotion of books and reading?

I mean by all means be snobby about it, but you can’t pretend that your take has anything to do with the original premise of WBD.

It’s just a pissing contest over who can pat themselves on the back because they did WBD properly.

Anything goes at my son's school for WBD, which is as it should be.

Some of the teachers look amazing too!

And that's perfectly fine but it's got nothing to do with WBD.
So let's not pretend it is and just have a PJ or dress up day

If it's "dress up" day then there is no point, I'd rather skip it than spending money on an outfit.

Dressing up as a book character is a good idea if parents and children put a bit of effort into it, and it doesn't cost much if you use everyday items.