World Book Day 2017 will celebrate 20 years anniversary with an all-star line-up

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Published on Saturday, 10 September 2016 17:59

Last Updated on 10 September 2016

Monica Costa

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Yesterday I attended an event at Waterstones Piccadilly to announce the PR campaign surrounding the 20th anniversary of the world’s biggest annual celebration of reading in the UK, World Book Day 2017 . To my surprise I met a stellar panel including Jacqueline Wilson, Francesca Simon (Horrid Henry), Liz Pichon (Tom Gates) and Steven Butler (Dennis the Menace). I happen to be one of few lucky people who have interviewed them all before. 

And I have a strong interest in their writing because they are my son Diego’s favourite writers. Diego has read the Tom Gates series, Dennis the Menace and Horrid Henry‘s many times over.

I am personally a big fan of world book day not just because it is a great initiative to encourage children to enthusiastically read new books but also because I am fascinated by how brilliantly written these short stories are. In fact one of the questions I asked these ‘national treasures’ was ‘what’s the secret to write such punchy stories in just a few pages’.

Every year the event becomes bigger and bigger and what amazes me the most is that it is all done for charity. Nobody gets paid – authors don’t get a penny for their work nor royalties. Publishers and resellers also work for nothing, unless you consider the benefits of the marketing opportunity linked with this annual event.

Of course on the back of World Book Day 2017 publishers will sell more books but the initiative is still very well panned out and considering its success over time I reckon it will become even bigger in the future.

World Book Day costumes

What I personally love about World Book Day is the preparation of home-made outfits for the school parade. My son has won the best prizes two years in a row with his costumes. It’s true we put lots of hours into them but it was well worth the effort and we learnt a lot in the process.

Here is some inspiration: 

How about Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket for a costume?

World Book Day Costume ideas

Ideas for World Book Day costumes inspired by Comic books

And this one inspired by Liz Pichon’s Tom Gates:

Did you know? World Book Day 2017 Facts & Anecdotes

 

• On 2 March 2017 World Book Day will celebrate its 20th anniversary giving away a record 1 million books for the occasion. Over the past 19 years, World Book Day UK has delivered 13 million £1 books into the hands of young people across the country. In 2016, the number of £1 books given away was 789,738. The charity’s aim for its 20^th anniversary is to increase this number to one million.

• David Walliams, Dame Jacqueline Wilson and Julia Donaldson among the “national treasures” writing new stories for World Book Day 2017, with the goal of encouraging greater engagement with reading and ownership of books by children.

• These authors will each contribute an official World Book Day £1 book, which children can get for free in exchange for the £1 book token available to all schoolchildren in the UK and Ireland.

• World Book Day was first designated an international event by UNESCO in 1995 after being observed for over 70 years in Barcelona (Catalonia), where giving books to friends and family had become an annual tradition. It was first marked in the UK two years later in 1997, in response to an increasing concern over poor reading and writing standards.

• In 1997 the level of children’s engagement with reading was at a point of national crisis. The previous year a Government report had been released showing that 42% of 11-year-olds failed to achieve level 4 in reading and writing on entry to secondary school.

• The official World Book Day 2017 illustrator is Liz Pichon, children’s book writer and illustrator/creator of the Tom Gates series.

• From January 2017, children in the UK and Ireland will be given a £1 book token in their nurseries and schools, which they can use to claim their World Book Day title in participating bookshops and supermarkets from 27 February to 26 March.

 

World Book Day 2017 Books

 

The £1 World Book Day books for 2017 in full:

• Peppa Loves World Book Day (Ladybird)
• Everyone Loves Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)
• Where’s Wally? The Fantastic Journey by Martin Handford (Walker Books)
• Princess Mirror-Belle and Snow White by Julia Donaldson & Lydia Monks (Macmillan)
• Horrid Henry: Funny Fact Files by Francesca Simon (Orion Children’s Books)
• Good Old Timmy and Other Stories by Enid Blyton (Hodder Children’s Books)
• An as yet untitled book by David Walliams (HarperCollins)
• Butterfly Beach by Jacqueline Wilson (Corgi)
• Island by David Almond (Hodder Children’s Books)
• Dead of Night: A Front Lines Story by Michael Grant (Egmont)

 

PRE SCHOOL:

Peppa Loves World Book Day (Ladybird)

It’s World Book Day, but Peppa has so many favourite books, she can’t decide which character to dress up as! Who will she be? Find out in this Peppa Pig story!

 

Everyone Loves Underpants by Claire Freedman (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)

This zany, hilarious tale is delightfully brought to life by Ben Cort’s vibrant illustrations. With a madcap, rhyming text by award-winning Claire Freedman, this is sure to enchant and amuse the whole family! In this PANTSTASTIC story, join old friends to celebrate the wonder of underpants!

 

KS1:

Where’s Wally? The Fantastic Journey by Martin Handford (Walker Books)

Join Wally on his quest through magical and bizarre fantasy lands. Hidden in every intricately-detailed scene are Wally and his friends – so let the hunt begin! Full of eye-boggling extras and hours of fun, this third classic Wally adventure comes in a fiendish mini edition and extra puzzling and magical puzzles to play. Wow! Amazing!

 

Princess Mirror-Belle and Snow White by Julia Donaldson & Lydia Monks (Macmillan)

Ellen gets a big shock when her double appears out of the bathroom mirror. But Mirror-Belle is a double with a difference! She is a princess, and a very mischievous one at that. In this story Mirror-Belle comes popping out of Ellen’s mirror to help out with the local pantomime taking the story off script a hilarious way.

 

Horrid Henry: Funny Fact Files by Francesca Simon (Orion Children’s Books)

Horrid Henry is the no.1 expert in pulling pranks, running a cool club and making as much mayhem as possible. And now you can be just like him! This hilarious book is full of fiendish facts about Horrid Henry, plus top-secret diary entries, club passwords and tips for dealing with annoying siblings.

 

Good Old Timmy and Other Stories by Enid Blyton (Hodder Children’s Books)

Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog find excitement and adventure wherever they go in Enid Blyton’s most popular series. After the Five see a boy being kidnapped at the beach, they set out to find him. But where have the kidnappers hidden the boy? Will Timmy lead them to the answer? In addition to the Famous Five novels, Enid Blyton wrote a clutch of short stories based on the characters. These were published in magazines and collected in the Famous Five Short Story Collection. Here are the complete and original texts of Good Old Timmy, When Timmy Chased the Cat, A Lazy Afternoon and Well Done Famous Five, all originally published in 1956.

 

KS2:

Title tbc by David Walliams (HarperCollins)

A side-splittingly funny and brilliantly imaginative story, specially created for World Book Day by the no. 1 bestselling children’s author.

 

Butterfly Beach by Jacqueline Wilson (Corgi)

A brand-new story starring the unlikely best friends of The Butterfly Club, published specially for World Book Day 2017, from much-loved and bestselling author Jacqueline Wilson. Selma can’t wait to go on holiday with her best friend forever, Tina. But a holiday with Tina means a holiday with her triplet sisters, too – and it’s not long before Selma feels like the odd one out. Can their shared love of butterflies bring Selma and Tina together again?

 

YA:
Island by David Almond (Hodder Children’s Books)

Each year, sixteen-year old Louise travels with her father to the island of Lindisfarne. It’s a holiday, but also a pilgrimage to the place Louise’s mother loved best of all in the whole world. This year things are changing and the beautiful and haunted island is a troubled place. Louise is growing fast, and is yearning for independence. Her father becomes infatuated by an American tourist. And they arrive at the same time as Hassan, a mysterious boy from Syria, who fascinates Louise. He seems to have known this place from long ago, and to be at home here. He’s an acrobat, maybe a sorcerer, maybe a source of great danger. The gang of boys who live in the island’s wilder places want to cast him out. Over the course of a few days, the forces of love, death, hope and destruction move these characters towards a deeper understanding of themselves and the world. This is a story which shows how the journeys we take and the people we meet shape us forever.

 

Dead of Night: A Front Lines Story by Michael Grant (Egmont)

Rio Richlin doesn’t have superpowers. She is an ordinary young woman. A soldier in the American army, wearing a uniform, carrying a rifle, and fighting alongside thousands who are trying to make a difference, trying to change the world. At least, that’s the plan. Right now she’s part of a squad on a training exercise in some place called Wales. They’re cold, they’re wet, and Rio’s pretty sure they’re also lost. Spending the night in a creepy old inn wasn’t part of the plan at all…Set in the alternative World War II scenario of his Front Lines novels, Michael Grant, author of the bestselling GONE series, has written this story exclusively for World Book Day.

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