Every year the beginning of March brings World Book Day – a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and reading. The campaign gives children in over 100 countries the chance to read/own a book and is often marked by children dressing up as their favourite literary character (or whatever character their parents can scramble together). For publishers, it is an opportunity to drive more children into bookshops and encourage children to read for pleasure. Lots of authors every year write a book as part of the campaign and bookshops across the UK sell these titles. This year, Penguin Random House organised the single largest volunteering effort – donating over 6,000 books to the local communities and with 500+ colleagues visiting over 130 schools, libraries and children’s centres (although it was rather affected by the snow!). Here is a little history of the campaign, its values and this years WBD books!

History of World Book Day

Now in its 21st year, the WBD campaign aims to ‘encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own’. It does this by sending 15 million book tokens to schools across the UK along with resource packs containing activities, ideas and display material. It is all possible thanks to National Book Tokens Ltd, publishers and booksellers.

How do the tokens work?

The tokens are each worth £1 and, to ensure that every child can purchase a whole book (as opposed to half…), ten exclusive new books are released as part of the WBD initiative. The tokens can also be used to get £1 off any book or audio book worth over £2.99 at any participating bookshop. For teens, there are now also five titles for only £2.50 – so only £1.50 with a WBD token!

WBD 2018 Titles

Children’s titles:

Oi Goat! by Kes Gray and Jim Field

Mr Men: My Book About Me by  Roger Hargreaves

Paddington Turns Detective and Other Funny Stories by Michael Bond

Nadiya’s Bake Me a Story

The Baby Brother from Outer Space by Pamela Butchart

Terry’s Dumb Dot Story: A Treehouse Tale by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton

Brain Freeze by Tom Fletcher

The Bolds’ Great Adventure by Julian Clary

The Girl Who Thought She Was a Dog by Clare Balding

Marvel Avengers: The Great Heroes

Teen Titles:

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge

 Gangsta Rap by Benjamin Zephaniah

I Have No Secrets by Penny Joelson

Summoner: The Novice by Taran Matharu