World Book Day

[empee47]

AIBU to say that World Book Day is pointless? Its main purpose is to encourage a love of reading - which I can’t argue with at all - but it’s become all about the costume and nothing about the book. It doesn’t appear to encourage reluctant readers at all. The main focus is now the costume - I think we should be moving away from so much focus on appearance. It causes stress and anxiety for parents and children alike and disengagement from the actual purpose of enjoying a book. Particularly interested in teachers’ views.

Clothes that are comfortable for reading? I’ll be back in a minute love I’m just going to change into my reading trousers.

Oh read between the lines, ffs. It's the get out clause for kids who don't like dressing up and would rather just wear ordinary clothes. Did you truly not realise that?

It’s a pain but now dd has finished primary I do enjoy looking back at the photos of her over the years and feel quite proud of myself! It’s a little bit of fun for the kids

There are these threads every year and whilst as a parent and teacher I hate dressing up and the faff of it all, my Y3s were massively excited about it today. They were all talking about their costumes and asking what I was going to wear. They are really looking forward to it which is great.

I'm not sure why you think it's not about reading? I can see why as a parent sorting the costume it feels like that but with respect you're not doing the lessons! Our whole day tomorrow is about reading. I've never worked at a school where that's not the case.

I hate World Book Day with a passion. And I love reading.

As a campaign, I think it fails because a) does anyone ever know what the themes are each year? b) a significant proportion of parents hear its coming upand the default reaction is "for fuck sake" - thats never a good sign.

My school always insists on dressing up. My child hates dressing up with a passion, shes a real introvert and hates it. They said if she didn't want to dress up, she should come in wearing her school uniform - yeah, cos that makes her feel better about standing out from the crowd.

There's too much pressure to go and buy a costume from Sainsbury's, even if you've never read the book. I'm lucky, I just have one kid. But at £15 a costume, that's quickly adding up if you have two or three kids.

A couple of years ago, I bought her a t-shirt with a picture of Dork Diaries on the front. She's never worn it since, so that was £12 I spent on an unnecessary t-shirt, which I could have spent on actual books instead.

But my real FUCKING HATRED of it is that there's absolutely ZERO nuance of how inaccessible books can be

My kid is dyslexic - we've had to work really hard to help her, but so many books are not printed in relation to dyslexic print conditions (e.g. larger font, larger line spacing, more visual aids so the pages of text aren't overwhelming, a lack of printing on cream/not white paper due to the colour contrast between white page and black text). We've spent a fortune on Barrington Stokes books over the years, and quite frankly, if WBD isn't tackling these very real issues, what is the actual point of it?

The movie was adapted into a book.

Well that was kind of my point... It used to be a day where you dressed up as characters from your favourite book, now it seems to be any fancy dress you want and then frantically look for the book version that the kid hasn't even read

It would be unusual though for a child to own a fancy dress costume and not to have read a companion book or comic.
If they have a character they love enough to want to dress up as then most kids want to read all the companion books or comics available.

All the kids I know have gone to the supermarket and chosen a costume and that was that.

there was one person on our freecycle page asking anyone had a book about cheerleading cos her kid wanted to dress as a cheerleader. So it’s definitely become a costume-first / book second campaign

Ironically the accessibility of supermarkets getting involved is what’s killed it

If it gets them to read a book, I don’t see the problem.

People will choose convenience regardless of what the theme is and them being frantic looking for things is their own personal issue imo.

WBD is the first Thursday of March every year. It rarely changes. Unless the school decides to drop a theme for WBD less than a week in advance, there is plenty of time to sort it.

Our primary does focus on the reading. Instead of the costume, they go in onsies or pjs/something comfy so they can sit and read. Much better IMO

Our school is doing dress as an adjective which is great. That way children wear their own clothes and there is no pressure on parents to buy anything. I’m going as sleepy and wearing PJs and a dressing gown.

My daughters school is doing a pyjama day instead of costumes, the kids will wear their pjs to school and bring a blanket and their favourite book and then will be doing lessons about the books that day. I think this is perfect, a special day to celebrate books and reading and zero stress for parents. My son’s nursery is doing costumes but he wants to go in his pjs like his big sister so that’s exactly what I will be doing! He’s two he won’t notice he’s the only one in his pjs.

The master 2 schools I worked at have stopped doing dress up and have a PJ day, i.e. bedtime stories.

It's a challenge as a staff member finding some presentable for work PJs, but easier for parents, I think?

Luckily, mine both hated dressing up so I'd just send them in jeans and a tee shirt. I can't believe they're still doing it. It's so lame and has nothing to do with reading anyway.

It’s so daft, I hate seeing all the costumes in supermarkets every year - just spend money on a book instead!
Luckily my DD is in year 6 now and growing out of wanting to dress up - she is wearing her horse riding gear and taking a book about horse riding

I have a Year 4 son and he is really excited about tomorrow and was excitedly chatting with his friends on the way home about their costumes. Some years he’s had a favourite costume he’s wanted to wear and we’ve found a related book, this year he wanted to be Dogman so we’ve made a costume.

My eldest is now in secondary. Some years she wanted to go all out, others she wanted something more simple, like one year she went as a sports person who has written a book.

Why does it matter if it's costume first? Essentially it's just 'dressing up day' and meanwhile let's spend all day celebrating books. Children like dressing up and if they don't, schools generally have other options. Celebrating books isn't diminished because the children are in fancy dress rather than uniform.

Got to admit my son has not read any of the books for percy jackson he does have special needs and wouldn't be able to read it so I let him watch the series instead he is at special school so they still do it at secondary level

Pjamers would not be an option for a lot of them as most of them sleep with minimal clothing apparently they tried it once and got complaints because parents had to buy nightwear 😂

High school English teacher here. I think it needs to be more strategic and linked in with moving forward encouraging reading. The statistics are truly shocking about reading for pleasure and no-one has a clue how to tackle it.

I hate the tokenistic, competitive element some parts of it can bring.

I love reading and wish more people read. The recent thread about not valuing reading made me so upset I had to stop reading (there might have been some pregnancy hormones in that too)

Ps. Sorry if my punctuation is shocking, I was at school till 6 doing a display for WBD and I'm tired 🤣🙈

We don’t dress up at the primary I work at. We encourage the children to wear comfy clothes, jamas, etc. We spend all day focussed on reading for pleasure and everyone gets hot chocolate.

I like World Book Day. I teach a humanities subject and there's so much stem focus, it's nice to have the attention on reading and the importance of books. My kids like dressing up and are excited about the costumes. I've put them together from second hand clothes or stuff they'll wear again so there's no waste.

DS's school has done a library visit and has a parent reading event and a second hand book sale. It's been great.

Thank god we’re past that now.

If you don't want your kid to wear a costume, don't wear one. If your kid doesn't like them, don't wear one. But that doesn't mean my kids, who are readers and love dressing up, shouldn't be allowed.