A day of books and dressing up...

Twenty years of World Book Day, a delight for some but a nightmare for others, usually flustered parents who haven't quite prepared a costume for the big day.

I love the concept of World Book Day because there is nothing quite like children being excited about books and encouraging them to read. This is the event where a great number of children  own their very own book for the very first time. Tokens are distributed around schools and there are ten free books to choose from or the voucher can be used for £1 discount on other books including audio too. It's great!!.......or is it?

World Book day, for some is one of the most stressful days of the year. It's the time where nurseries and schools thought is was a great idea to not only get children reading and book friendly but also to dress up as their favourite character from a book. I love this personally and really want to dress up myself. My kids are older now so there is part of me that misses it a little bit but another part of me that doesn't miss the complete disorganisation of it. 

As a parent you usually remember about World Book Day the night before. You can't blame the lost note in your child's bag anymore as it gets plastered on social media now and if the school has a text service, well it's usually there in black and white.....dressing up time!!! yippee. 

Amazon sales must soar at this time of year, the dressing up shop staff are  rubbing their hands together as the world has just created yet another time to spend money on costumes that are not going to be worn again, a bit like Halloween and Christmas jumper day. The best idea is to just pop to your local charity shop as there will be loads of costumes there just waiting to be recycled for a time like this. The thing is though the shops are not open 8pm when you've completely forgotten to get something sorted and even Amazon are not that quick. 

Panic!!! Your house then turns into an episode of Blue Peter as you gather all emergency household products to build a costume that may just pass for a literature character. Some people actually create a whole new character no one has heard off to go with the costume about to be created. There is now an enormous amount of pressure to produce the kind of outfit to compete with the other child in school whose parent has a wardrobe for every eventuality, although they keep the adult costumes somewhere secret!!! (wink wink). Yes there's always the one child that when you turn up at school on the day you have to do a double take to see whether Harry Potter has actually made a guest appearance as that wand is very authentic. Maybe they could use it to cast a spell on some of the costumes which you struggle to work out what they actually are, you can't ask as that would just upset the small person and the parent, who will always confirm that it's bloomin obvious what it is!!! After all a lot of cardboard, paint and duck tape went into to making that masterpiece. 

Some children just don't want to take part and actually realise how much they appreciate their uniform, I suppose it's optional but it does become quite competitive. It's good to see the pictures on social media as there are some great effort made. and it is so nice to see children smiling, having fun and showing an appreciation for literature. If it starts the road to a passion of reading and a love of books then it's got to be a good thing, it must be as it would not have been successful for all these years. Hold in there fellow parents, remember - leave plenty of time and you don't have to buy expensive costumes. The World Book Day website give plenty of hints, resources and all the information you need really at www.worldbookday.com

​I'm just off to decide what to wear next year, I might just randomly take part, must remember to stick to children's books and not go for anything 50 Shades style but thats' another blog for another day.......take care and catch you tomorrow for Free From Friday!

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