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! 🤣

You must be absolutely knackered

I thought it was meant to be a day about books? When did it change?

So if a child has borrowed a book from the library or somewhere else, they then can't dress as a character because they don't own the book?

I would also argue, if they haven't read the book and then borrow it and read it- they have been encouraged to read, which is the whole point of WBD.

Some schools round here have offered an alternative of 'comfortable clothes' so children can settle down and read.

Beauty and beast, cinderella etc were books before they became Disney princess films. And there is a whole series of books called "Frankie's magic football" aimed at kids aged 8-11 so perfectly reasonable to go in a football kit as well.

Also I am not buying a new costume specifically for world book day - waste of time, money, bad for environment etc. I will let my kids choose a costume they already have that they like and wear many times, and if they are still in good condition when they've outgrown we offer them to early years department at school so other kids can use or they go to charity shop.

World Book Day 2024: York boy dresses as Argos catalogue

A YORK schoolboy had a quirky approach to World Book Day - he dressed up as page 86 of the Argos catalogue.

Rowan Sanderson, nine, a pupil at Osbaldwick Primary School in York, adorned himself with a toaster, a kettle and a pair of hair straighteners, and declared that he was off to school dressed up as a page from the Argos catalogue.
A picture of him in his 'fancy dress' was shared to the York Press Facebook group as part of World Book Day celebrations today (Thursday, March 7) - an event that sees thousands of youngsters dress as a character from the favourite book.

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/24170630.world-book-day-2024-york-boy-dresses-argos-catalogue/?fbclid=IwAR3g8jCybCSZrUC-KscE2qGvlaj1JOXyTs5wBc87-HvIOLSvfHXtICcRzkkaemASQN00qHN3neHYrrgzvlRrfFW3ysrd7KYGSSRosKr-WvYfbFOTOot51C1d_vCc1qST0#3how2n7ocq4

But we have Toy Story books. They might not be an original concept piece of literature but it's a book with words.

What Disney? Most of them are based on books

TBF tho you're fitting the theme for WBD perfectly. Comics count.

Assuming your kids have decent pajamas they can wear to school and not thready hand me downs / old t-shirts etc for bed.

I'd do away with the costume part altogether and make it fully about books and reading. Have the kids make posters or decorate shirts or something in school, have book swaps etc.

So it only counts as a lottery figure if you deem it so? Despite a huge history of comic books which has spawned a love of reading in many boys, and books like Cinderella having very long histories before there was a Disney version.

And if the only book a kid will read is a football annual then thank god they've got one and will read it. They're reading. That's the main point!!

Will be a Willy Wonka and two Tigers here tomorrow. I don't care who thinks "Don't Tickle The Tiger" isn't high brow enough for a four year old 🤣 the other one is taking in The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Is that acceptable?

Oh you mean princesses like Cinderella and Beauty who all come from books? Even ones like Moana and Tiana have spawned books. And all those superheroes, it's almost like there a million pound comic book industry out there somewhere!

@DrJoanAllenby the "Argos Catalogue" thing was a joke from donkey's years ago. Argos don't even print catalogues any more. I expect that was the kids mum who came up with his costume as a whole "aren't I hilarious" thing.
In the photo I saw of the boy he looked just baffled. He was probably thinking "what's an Argos catalogue".
Poor kid.

CBA with it one bit. Just send kids in with a book or something else they like hearing read or reading themselves. The constant performative nature of WBD has become drama & pressure day.

I know. It's satire.

@DrJoanAllenby I just felt sorry for the boy. He didn't look happy in the picture.
It was amusing the first time some kids did it - but not funny now.

Hate this one as a teacher as my pyjamas are definitely not in good enough condition to be seen in public!

Kids school haven't done costumes for a few years. They do a big book swap instead. Even set up a book swap stall for the parents this year as well.

School Facebook group had one mum going ballistic because PE is also on a Thursday and she’s spent ‘over £70 on Oompa Loompa costumes and face paints and she didn’t see why her children should have to do PE and get the costumes wrecked.

it would be better if costumes were cheap and homemade - One year DD went as incy wincy spider with tights stuffed with old newspapers for the extra legs. Cost about £3 for the newspaper (it was nursery rhymes that year, before anyone gets on at me). The cost and expectation on parents to buy one-off costumes is silly.

Most parents are just lazy. I do sometimes wonder why people bother to have children when they don't have any time or money to do things with them. Funny how plenty of kids managed to go to school in expensive football kits today. I've never had to spend a lot on a costume for my dd- homemade from things you have at home already is best.

Agreed. DS was desperate to show off the football kit he got for Christmas so we let him wear it and googled a book by the club/footballer, so he had the defence that technically it was a book related costume.

I certainly wasn’t prepared to buy or make a costume for today, and forcing him into a homemade Gruffalo costume wouldn’t have made him want to read anymore than he already does. I don’t really see the point of WBD anyway.

We go low key but do not use pre-made costumes or buy anything specially for it. My youngest went as Tabby McTat (grey tshirt, green scarf, cat ears, eyeliner whiskers and pink blusher nose) and the older one was where's wally (stripy tshirt, fake glasses & beanie hat).

My only objection to bought costumes for my own kids is that I think they sometimes look a bit sweaty and uncomfortable. Maybe OK for Halloween but I wouldn't want to sit all day in lessons and playing outdoors in a polyester costume tbh. So I usually do something which involves a pair of jeans and a tshirt if possible!

My DS went in a football kit. He wanted to. He can read. I don’t equate reading with dressing up so am not going to sweat over a sewing machine for something he won’t wear.

You sound like you’re bitter because you spent loads of time on a costume trying to compete at the gate, only to find 90% of the kids were dressed as Elsa or Spider-Man, the same outfits they wore for Halloween, and nobody was arsed about your Olivia’s Gandalph outfit. Let other people be.

It's snobbery towards the working class/supermarket outfits and the insistence children should come dressed as obscure characters that parents have spent hours making at home.