Not just fancy dress: 10 ways to celebrate World Book Day in 2022

February 8th 2022

On March 3 2022, schoolchildren around the UK will dress up as their favourite book characters for the 25^th anniversary of World Book Day but did you know there are lots of other exciting ways to celebrate this important literary event?

World Book Day promotes reading for pleasure and offers every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own which changes lives through a love of books and shared reading.

Many primary and secondary schools join in the fun by encouraging pupils to dress as their best-loved literary characters from beginner books, ks2 fiction books and beyond, which gets reluctant readers involved and leads to book recommendations as the children chat about each other’s costumes. 

But there are plenty of other ways to encourage conversations about books and the importance of reading for pleasure without dressing up. And, of course, reading for pleasure is important all year round, not only on one day.

If you’d love some fresh ideas to get your pupils excited about celebrating World Book Day, without excluding children who don’t have many of their own books at home, our curriculum specialists have some useful tips for getting involved without putting on fancy dress (unless you want to!)

10 ways to celebrate World Book Day and reading for pleasure in 2022

• Get pupils to bring in a copy of their favourite book to recommend to others (or they can choose one they love from the school library or public library)
• Write a review of books they’ve recently enjoyed – this could be one they’ve read in school or at home and share them with other pupils or make a display of them in your school library
• Run a pupil book swap – book swaps are a simple yet effective way to encourage pupils to share book ideas and see what others are reading. It also saves money and is good for the environment
• Put together a mystery book selection – wrap books up with a clue or short review and get pupils to select their next read without knowing the book’s title. This is a good way to get children to read subjects by authors they wouldn’t normally choose
• Bring books to life with props or homemade puppets – this can work particularly well with younger children in Key Stage 1. Read the book aloud to grab their attention and use different voices for different characters to keep them hooked while you tell the story
• Set a reading challenge in school – launch it on World Book Day and run it throughout the term or until the summer. Offer pupils a prize for those who read the most books, or reach a specific target such as finishing 5 or 10 books by a certain date
• Ask staff to take a photo of themselves with their favourite world book day books or world book day poems, with their faces hidden, and ask pupils to guess who’s reading! The staff photos can be displayed in the school library and the book they choose doesn’t have to be related to the subject they teach
• Start a campaign to raise money for books with Peters’ free fundraising platform Support Your School. You can raise money for a selection of new fiction, diverse books or non-fiction books on a specific topic or a magical new library of high-quality books. With Support Your School it’s easy to fundraise as we provide you with the tools and support you need to raise money for your much-needed resources. Simply register your school, create a fundraising page and start fundraising with Support Your School now!
• Download our free activity and colouring sheets linked to thousands of books. There are also discussion questions for guided reading and book groups, saving you valuable planning and preparation time
• Arrange an author visit, either in person or virtually. Authors often get booked up ahead of World Book Day but you can arrange a visit to your school during the same week. Authors Aloud provide detailed background information about the author before they visit as well as tips on how to make your event a success. Puffin are also offering virtual author visits this term

For more information about this year’s World Book Day celebrations, and to find out how your school can get involved, visit the World Book Day website.