World Book Day 2022
Today…
Thursday 3rd March 2022 – is World Book Day when many school pupils will be:
- engaging with books and authors through real-life and virtual events
- encouraged to read even more than they usually are by their parents and teachers – there’s a difference between acquiring the skills needed to read and falling in love with stories, characters and books
- dressing up to go to school as favourites book characters – I am concerned when this becomes a competition among parents, with the less creative ones dreading this day, school assemblies and nativity plays. One school near me has over come this situation by suggesting the children wear their pyjamas to school today (heralding an increase in children’s nightwear sales?)
- and, perhaps best of all, receiving a £1 Book Token to spend in a bookshop on one of the selected books
What…?
World Book Day is a charity that:
“changes lives through a love of books and shared reading. We will be celebrating World Book Day on 3 March 2022. Our mission is to promote reading for pleasure, 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. Designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, World Book Day is marked in over 100 countries around the globe.”
Quotation from: World Book Day/ About Us
Why…?
Let’s just imagine:
- a world without books
- a nation without books
- a town without libraries
- a street with houses that have no books
- a home with no books
- a life without reading books
How…?
Apart from the initiatives of days like today, there are many ways a parent, grandparent, or guardian, can encourage a child to adore books:
- read to a child as soon as there is an opportunity, by which I mean as soon as there is life – I used to narrate nursery rhymes to my firstborn while I changed and bathed him. By the time Son #2 arrived just over two years later, bedtime stories were a well-established routine, for both parents, and soon, for both sons
- take your child to the local library – I hope you still have one
- allow a small budget for books if at all possible and make sure your child knows a bookshop is a special place and welcoming place
- encourage your child to want books as gifts not just the latest electronic gizmo
- THIS IS MY MOST IMPORTANT TIP – if family and friends are seen to enjoy reading, children will copy them – the love of books is the greatest educational tool you can demonstrate to a growing mind
- and that old adage, she or he even reads the breakfast cereal packet – don’t discourage any form of reading
Children’s Authors…
I hope all readers and writers are familiar with the children’s book market. Try your hand at writing a book for YOUR child. Personalised with photos and family stories, it will be a greater pleasure to read – and you might discover a talent, especially the Later Writer grandparents among you.
Last Of All…
Any story you enjoyed reading as a child will have special resonance for your own youngsters. Read the book aloud, describe your relationship with it, reminisce about your own childhood bookshelves. Show how much books mean to you.
My favourite book as a primary school pupil was called THE READERS’ DIGEST COMPENDIUM FOR GIRLS (inclusivity was not yet popular). It had a red hardcover, looked a bit like a bible and I pored over every page. I recall on article where George Bernard Shaw set out his case for abandoning spelling by writing phonetically. It was perfectly comprehensible. How I’d love to rediscover a copy of that book. I have no idea what happened to mine.
And, please, keep books in the home, on display and used by everyone.
Happy Reading!
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