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.

Why did you spend £12 on a Dork Diaries t-shirt instead of dressing her as one of the numerous Dork Diaries characters that just wear ordinary clothes?

If that’s how you parent your kids then that’s up to you. Some of us have better standards

Amazing that you know every single kid, what they enjoy and how they spend their free time.

God forbid children want to have a little fun, eh?

Mine love reading AND dressing up. And you really don't have to buy expensive costumes. My eldest spent ages this year making a cardboard sword so she could go as Eowyn from Lord Of The Rings. My youngest insisted on being Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, which she has neither seen or read, so we took the book out from the local library to read at bedtime. She's very excited about taking her toy dog in a basket to school.

because we were specifically told by the school that it had to be a 'costume' rather than just our own clothes.

Utter bullshit. It really was.

When I asked why they couldn't just go in civvies, the response was "children who didn't want to wear a costume could go in wearing their school uniform"

I was sort of joking, and I don't let my kids watch it because I do think it's brain rot, but lots of people do and that's up to them 🤷🏼‍♀️ levity isn't very well communicated on here.

I am so glad my kids have aged past WBD.

I flipping hated it. One of the few good things about lockdown was we got a year off WBD.

I wish schools would either drop it or just admit to a dressing up day - instead of the pretence that its about the books.

It's bad enough when you have a 7 year old who doesn't like books ...my oldest son went to an independent special school for autistic boys. At age 14, 15 and 16 he was expected to participate in world book day! He hated it already and to force teenagers to do it was ridiculous. He normally didn't go in on that day, once I ordered him a jesus costume off Amazon as a half arsed effort to get him to participate but it looked so ridiculous he just stayed home again

But if she styles her own clothes into the outfit of a particular character, then that's literally a costume.

What if their favourite book character is Charlie Bucket? Or their favourite book is Diary of a Wimpy Kid?

I’ve been seeing a lot of people posting their kids for world book day, I think I’ve seen one actual book character and the rest have been from films and video games, very clear to see which households don’t have children that read outside of school…

My dc hated it until he was eight - that’s when he had a costume that he put together himself (wimpy kid) and now as a nine year old he wanted Harry Potter as he just finished the first book and is starting a Harry Potter club. He liked the fact many others had the Harry Potter costume too, it’s like the world book day uniform… That or a football kit for the boys 🙄

Indeed. One of mine has decided to reuse their Halloween costume and go as Death from the Terry Pratchett novels.

So many judgemental people on this thread that don’t understand kids. Totally possible for kids to read at home but also want to dress up like their favourite current character that might not have originated in a book, because it’s a bit of fun, for kids.

Dropped my son off today. All of the boys, apart from him and one other, were in Minecraft hoodies. Walked off feeling really paranoid that he’ll be embarrassed all day for sticking out in a costume. He picked his costume and loved it, but still.

I agree op. I’m absolutely sick and fucking tired of the endless dress up days at school. World book day being the one I dread most. And the expectation by school of being expected to just ‘magic’ up a costume. I don’t want to cut clothes up to make them and I don’t want to have to spend £25 plus delivery on ordering costumes off Amazon/ smithies etc for something my kid will only wear once. I agree that it’s become more about dressing up than about books.

I’m also sick and tired of the almost weekly messages from school saying “ Next week we will be celebrating international {insert whatever day here} day” where each child has to come dressed in specific colours- usually colours of clothing my child just doesn’t happen to have …. So then have to go out buying items of clothing of these specific colours so that your child is not left out!

And if it’s not that it’s the Disney dress up days or the Maths and Numbers dress up days or some other shit where I have to somehow magic up impossible ‘costumes’ at a cost to me!

Oh and then Pudsey Day and Red Nose Day! It’s never ending ffs

Very few wearing costumes in my area today

My DD aged 10 has gone today in school uniform. She thinks it’s a pointless exercise too. I got a Class Dojo notification this morning where the teacher had taken a bunch of photos. No idea what anyone else was dressed as but I did spot a Claudia Winkleman in The Traitors complete with red leather driving gloves, black cape and a wig. What’s that got to do with books? 🤷‍♀️

My daughter is. She reads loads anyway so dressing up as character is neither here or there! She has the costume so getting some use out of it!

Sorry I haven't read the full thread so apologies if someone else has said this. Isn't there some horrifying statistic that in quite a large number of households, the only books they have are the free World Book Day ones. For that alone, it's worth it.

Ohhhh I love that she’s chosen this as her costume as it was one of my choices in primary school some 20-odd years ago 😅 I remember my mum drawing the school badge for me!

"Nearly 3 in 10 (28%) children aged 8 to 11 receiving free school meals said the book they 'bought' with their World Book Day token had been the first book of their own."

My friend’s DF was a footballer in the 80s and 90s for the league team. Her DS has dressed up as him wearing the kit my friend wore when she was his age. Book - his autobiography

My daughter did too. Its her last year at primary so went for it, whilst using things we already have.

As a retired headteacher, I agree.

In my last school we had already moved away from costumes, based on knowing the families and needs.

The day became centred on reading. I knew the £1 WBD voucher would never be swapped for a book so we walked, in relay, to the local bookshop, looked around (pre arranged) and each spent the voucher. At the same time we visited the library, joined and borrowed a book.

On returning we read extracts of the books chosen and held parents meetings about the books, bookshop and library. We followed up with other sessions about our books and reminders to return those borrowed.

No costumes, no football strips, pyjamas or film stars in sight! (No profits for underwhelming WBD costumes from the supermarkets, no waste and no pressure on families to spend).

I love it. We've never bought a costume specifically for the event though there have been years where costumes have been cobbled together from other dressing up clothes e g. In yr R DD went as Princess Pearl from Zog wearing one of her Princess dresses topped with a doctor's coat and bag we already had and a stuffed toy dragon.

The one thing I bought one year was a pheasant dog toy so DS could go as Danny the Champion of the World. That was then given to our very thrilled dog afterwards.

Today is our final book day. DD and her friends have gone as various characters from Lottie Brooks. Unrecognisable to anyone looking on, but the product of some very detailed discussions amongst them ad to what sort of thing each character would wear.