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 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.

I know a mum exactly like this! Clearly very talented with a sewing machine, but GOD it was all about her whipping up an elaborate outfit to ape an obscure book character. She clearly really needed that affirmation.

My 3 year old has at least 30+ books. However I knew most of his friends would be dressing up as Disney, superhero's etc so I let him choose what he wanted. Letting children choose a costume doesn't automatically mean they don't have enough exposure to books.

Why not have the kids take a book to school that they have read and enjoyed. Another idea would be to give every child a book token or a library card or a book. Some way to get kids reading and discussing.

@ButterCrackers all children should be recieving the £1 book voucher that can be used on the specially published £1 books available in supermarkets and bookshops.
If your children aren't being giving the voucher then ask your school.

My children loved it and I liked being creative and using what we had at home plus maybe a few extras to create the costumes. As they got older and more choosy, I sometimes bought an entire costume for them but it had to be a book character.

However, as a teacher I understand the issues - cost, effort, children who don't want to, parents who don't have time etc. I still enjoy seeing the minority where an effort has been made and the costume is that of a recognisable book character.... it is World Book Day, not dress up day. But yeah, it's gone full on crazy...

I think it's a shame it's become about dressing up not books. They should ditch the costume bit and just tell a story then have pupils acting a bit of it.

I'm finding it more shocking that parents on here - trying to occupy the moral high ground no less - know nothing of the vast history of fairytales and superheroes across a wide range of literary formats.

As for football kits, there are tonnes of kids stories featuring footballers.

A truly idiotic thing to get judgy about

@TheKeatingFive yes the whole lore of the superhero world is amazing. People created these characters, their back stories, their personalities - and over time the connections between characters and their worlds have combined and evolved.
It's absolutely fantastic.

My son (7) doesn't show much interest in dressing up usually so I quite like World Book Day for this. We invest in a nice costume at some point over the year for £10 or less from eBay or TK Maxx and this will do for Halloween and World Book Day. We have a dragon, king, knight and pirate now in his dress up collection. I think it probably makes for some great imaginative play at school! I don't have any problem with the other kids dressing as disney or footballers as long as they enjoy the day too.

Many of the children I teach might have a few baby books from the health visitor at home but that's it. Dressing up is actually more accessible for them (some children do bring in a book anyway)

I find it very sad when children don't have books at home.
Books are a rare thing you can get hold of for free or very cheap.
Libraries are free (ok I know many have closed or have restricted opening times🙁).
Many places have those community bookshelves where people can leave a book or take a book.
People sell books for pennies at car boot sales. Charity shops (while not as cheap as they used to be) children's books can be 20p.
People tend to just pass books on to each other.
Books are a rare something that is easy (ish) for people to get - so why don't some families have books?

It may be more 'accessible' but I'm not sure how that's related to the aims of WBD

The skill that’s needed by the child is reading not dressing up.

So far any year I've made a real effort and made good outfits based on book characters no kids knew who they were, or had heard of the books, only the teachers, and they came home disappointed with the whole thing and wishing they had worn a superhero/princess costume like their friends

I don't disagree and I don't enjoy dressing up myself at all, I'm just stating the reality that where I teach, more children have dressing up clothes than have books. I agree with a pp it's sad and it's not the case for my own children. But 'bring in a book' just results in children bringing nothing at all or the books so many posters have complained have no worth.

Ha, I don't even own a sewing machine! My dd is 18 now so dressing up days are well in the past for me- but when we did book day she was always at least as a character from a book- nothing elaborate, just cobbled together from things we had- Pippy long stocking, Goth Girl, The White rabbit, Winnie The Witch, Mog, etc.- all super easy with a few basic clothing items and a little face paint.

I work in a primary school- it's much nicer when they dress up and bring the book they are dressed as to school- children have time in class sharing the books they bring with each other which might introduce others to new books, discussing their characters etc. Not a lot to be gained from dressing in a football strip on book day except signalling to everyone your lack of engagement with the event.

Book day at my school is about trying to foster the appreciation of books and open up children to new inspirations for reading- we have visiting authors, a book swap, visit to the library, paired reading with an older reading buddy, a fancy dress parade and an amazon voucher for the most original costumes followed by a bookshop at the end of the day where they can use their book day voucher.

Lots of effort put in by the staff who dress up too and do a 'masked reader completion' for the children as well as reading their favourite stories to the children.

What a shame some parents are so negative!

That is so sad. No wonder so many poor kids are growing up semi literate. Sharing a book with your child is a lovely part of parenting and helps children foster a love of reading and books. To think some parents/children don't own a book is awful. I guess they could use libraries but obviously just aren't bothered.

I think it can cause expense and stress for people but I like the link it books because it does encourage children to read and my DC really enjoyed using their book tokens.

I think it is possible to do it cheaper - eBay, Vinted, charity shops, diy, character t shirt from Asda and I have heard of some nurseries having pyjama days instead.

DCs school has a competition for the best home made costume. This annoys me as although our costumes are partially home made, I simply do not have the time, inclination or willpower to fashion things out of cardboard. It disenfranchises so many children and the same children win every year.

My poor DD hopes every year that she will win when in reality no one even knows who she's come as, we've done Malory Towers, Lucy from Narina books, Worst Witch and all that stuff because that's what she likes to read. I simply cannot compete with someone who has fashioned a wearable globe out papier mache so DC can go as an atlas.

A homemade costume doesn't have to be anything dramatic. Just a top like the characters and a prop. I seen one which was a character I've not heard of but it was the older girls fave book and the costume was literally a certain coloured dress and cardigan. This is what it's about not making something fancy out of cardboard (unless you want to of course as that's also perfectly fine)