World Book Day and our Favourite Childhood Books!
Today, March 3rd 2022, is World Book Day!
This year also marks the 25th anniversary of World Book Day, so it’s an extra special year! World Book Day was first celebrated all the way back in 1995, and is a yearly event organized by the United Nations Education to promote reading in children.
World Book Day changes lives through a love of books and shared reading, and their aim is to promote reading for pleasure and offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own.
“Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income. We want to see more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and the improved life chances this brings them” – World Book Day.
Because at our offices, we are a little bit too old to dress up with everyone else today, we decided to think back to what our favourite books were when we were children.
First up is Sophie!
Where’s Wally is a children’s puzzle book series, that has been publishing editions since 1987. The book contains page after page of detailed illustrations that show dozens of people doing a variety of amusing things, all in different places, such as the beach, a town square, or in a garden. The reader among all of the chaos, has to locate Wally, our little red, white and blue friend!
This has been a child-favourite staple since it was first published, and I have to admit, for all of my searching, I don’t think I’ve ever actually been able to find Wally! Sophie might have to take the prize for this one.
Next up is Scott!
Funnybones is a children’s series of books that follow the adventures of Skeletons as they explore the world at night. The characters are funny and clumsy, and named unusual names like ‘Big’, ‘Little’, ‘Dog’, ‘Cat’, and ‘Mr Bonehead’.
The most famous of these books is “Bump in the Night”, which is Scott’s favourite. With a sing-along section in the middle, and illustrations of crazy Skeleton adventures, it’s always been a big win with kids!
And finally Hannah!
I think it would have been hard to find a child who didn’t read, or at least hear about the Harry Potter books when they were first published. I was one of those kids who was desperate for the latest book for Christmas, and who begged my parents to take me to the cinema for the midnight showings for each new release.
Safe to say, at 12 years old, I didn’t manage to get them to budge on such a late bedtime.
The Harry Potter books were the first time that a book had sparked such an imagination, and getting to watch the next generation of my family read and explore this world is always fun, and reminds me of many days curled up and not moving my eyes from the page until they were pretty much drooping from lack of sleep.
I loved getting to see all of the costumes that kids put on and wore to school today, and it reminded me of all the fun I used to have on World Book Day!
After today!
To continue the fun even past today, the World Book Day team have put together some great new resources to inspire and encourage reading for pleasure.
You can find them here: 25_ways_to_celebrate_World_Book_Day.pdf (literacytrust.org.uk)
Or if you just want to take a nosey about World Book Day, and see a little bit more of what it’s all about, you can find their website here: World Book Day: 2022 date and ideas for activities | National Literacy Trust
