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! 🤣

It’s just a fun thing for kids to get involved in. You can’t win now can you? The mildest of initiatives is cried down and criticised. Ffs children like having fun and dressing up.

My kids have plenty of exposure to books and a whole multitude of characters they could choose from for WBD. Except it would be muggings here who has to source / pay for or make the bloody costumes. Yet another job for me, no thanks.

It's not a lack of exposure that my kids don't have a character to dress up as. It's because I decided I don't place enough value on the dressing up element of WBD.

I am lucky that alongside dressing up, my school did a family reading morning (it's just 30 minutes but the parents got to go in and read with their kids) and had lots of reading related activities throughout the day (they had a local author doing readings for the different year groups / book related quizzes / class presentations of kids favourite books etc)

Mine went in PJ's as suggested by the English lead this year "if you prefer not to dress up then come to school in your comfiest PJs and relax into WBD" was the tagline and I like it and lots of other parents agreed. It may be the way forward 🤞

But…..it’s World Book Day. You know, books?

@Starspangledrodeopony yes and Batman is a character from comic BOOKS.

My son's went to school as the BFG and Charlie bucket this morning

My son went as the bfg as its his fave atm but almost all the girls were disney princes and most of the boys superheroes. There was one little red riding hood to be fair!

Most film series, video games, footballers... have books as well. And if those tie in books get kids reading then that is EXACTLY WBD as it's encouraging reading.

Ok. It's just a discussion. Have you RTFT?

Also the bfg costume cost me nothing so its not cost its far cheaper to make something out of nothing than to order on Amazon. We used cardboard for ears and painted pink, cut up old tshirt. Made dream jars out of yogurt pots and glitter.

Also people saying time, i am a freelancer working around looking after my baby and my 4 year old, if I have time so do you 🤣 I had my 4 year old make it with me so its was an activity for us to do together at the weekend

!!!

@Ulysees yes I have and that is my contribution to the topic of discussion.

My daughter wanted to be a mermaid from
one of her favourite books, she already has an Ariel costume so there is no chance that I’m going to buy or make a second mermaid costume. We made some accessories out of felt that matched the character.

Some of the children are superheroes and have bought in comic books to match. There are loads of books about princesses, who cares that the costume isn’t entirely accurate.

DD also has read plenty of books she doesn’t own from the library. Maybe the parents asking for books don’t own them, it doesn’t mean the children haven’t read them.

I think that it would be better if the marking was more focused on the books than the costumes.

Perhaps each child is issued a library card via school.

@HelloDarlingWhatAreYouDoingHere they should all get the £1 voucher to spend on the specially published £1 books (available at bookshops, The Works and supermarkets).

@10storeylovesong yikes I really feel for you and DH. I don't know how you do it?

Batman is a character from a comic books first published in the 40s. In the library that I manage we have a lovely section of comic books that are very popular with young people. Don’t let that stop you from being judgy though.

I love reading, DD enjoys lots of books and we go to the library together but I still find it hard to think of a costume for a book character that she particularly likes. I’m probably not creative enough!

Batman is a literary character so not sure why there would be an issue? The Dark Knight Returns in particular is a masterpiece.

Our school policy is for kids to come dressed as an adjective, which means you can either buy/make a costume or (as we did) make use of what you already have.

DS has gone as "sleepy/tired" in his pyjamas and dressing gown
DD has gone as "camouflaged" in a pair of tiger stripe leggings, a zebra stripe t-shirt and a leopard print cardigan. She was going to go as "sparkly" in a sequined jumpsuit but changed her mind.

Well done. Have a medal 🥇

We live in one of the most deprived areas in the country and dds school is in the middle of one of the most hard hit estates.

They make such a big deal out of world book day and what the children can and can’t dress as.

There are so many families at the school struggling and relying on foodbanks. It’s just another pressure. Some children don’t even have an extra change of clothes, let alone a dressing up box or other resources. Some of them have parents struggling with mental health issues or substance abuse who can’t/won’t help them with any costume.

I think it’s awful they make such a big deal of it.

OP were you listening to Vernon earlier - he said exactly this!!