Inspiration
How to Support World Book Day
With World Book Day on the horizon, you might be planning to celebrate! Whether you work in a school environment or with young people in the community, there are many ways to get involved in World Book Day and encourage children to explore books and stories.
We’re exploring different ways to celebrate World Book Day, from creative writing and activities to how print can help inspire young minds and spread the word!
Table of contents
What is World Book Day?
World Book Day is a charity that hosts an annual event to encourage children to read for pleasure. Once a year, they distribute £1 book tokens to over 15 million children, who can exchange it for one of World Book Day’s specially published books.
The publishers publish and pay for the costs of producing the £1 books, with major publishers like Penguin and Bloomsbury taking part among many others.
The 2026 World Book Day books have options for all reading levels, from beginner to independent. There’s a Peppa Pig book, “The Big Bang” written by Rose Ayling-Ellis, “Chaos at the Chocolate Factory”, a book by Sibéal Pounder, inspired by the famous Roald Dahl characters, as well as stories in the Welsh and Irish languages, and many more. The huge variety of stories appeal to every child’s interests and make reading feel exciting.
Schools often celebrate World Book Day with fancy dress days, with children and teachers dressing up as their favourite characters. Many schools extend celebrations into a full week, with different activities everyday. From reading aloud with classmates to book swaps, visits to bookshops and book-themed arts and crafts to get children engaged with books and reading.
World Book Day also hosts a series of events, including live lessons, special digital events and webinars.
Image credit: Unsplash
When is World Book Day?
World Book Day in the UK is celebrated on the first Thursday in March. This year, World Book Day falls on Thursday 5th March 2026.
How to support World Book Day
Whether you work with children or you’re a parent encouraging your child to read more, there are plenty of ways to support World Book Day!
World Book Day Activity Books
An Activity Book is a great way to engage young minds with World Book Day! When little ones aren’t reading their new book, activities are a great way to keep them engaged with books and reading. The World Book Day website has a great range of resources to keep kids busy. Etsy is also a great place to find printable templates to include in activity books!
Colouring in
Colouring pictures from children’s books, like classic Quentin Blake illustrations from Roald Dahl books, or other favourite characters.
Word searches
Creating word searches relating to different stories is another great way to get children engaging with literature. Word search puzzles also help build cognitive engagement and pattern recognition in younger minds.
Design a new cover for your favourite book
Encourage creativity by having kids’ design new covers for their favourite books!
Learning to plan a story
For slightly older children, learning to plan a story can be a great activity to help build their creative writing skills. They can practice planning the key components: characters, setting and plot.
Characters: Have them plan the main characters and describe what they look like and what their personalities are. They can also go further and explore the characters’ relationships to each other and what their motivations are.
Setting: This is a great way for kids to practice using descriptive language and really get their imaginations ticking! Whether they are working with a real-life setting or made-up worlds, it’s a fab opportunity for them to get inventive and creative with their writing.
Plot: This is where kids can learn to separate their stories into a beginning, middle and end. Push them further by having them make notes about what will happen in each section of their stories.
Writing new stories with your favourite character
This is a fun creative task that gives kids a good starting point by basing it around their favourite character. They could try writing a prequel or sequel to the book their character is from, or come up with a brand new, original story.
There are lots of options for creating activity books with Printed.com! Read our Book Printing Guide to discover more.
| Saddle Stitch | Perfect Bound | Spiral Bound | Case Bound | Glued | |
| Costs | From £22 | From £40 | From £15 | From £132 | From £19 |
| Minimum pages | 8 | 20 | 4 | 32 | 50 |
| Maximum pages | 84 | 420 | 412 | 400 | 100 |
| Minimum quantity | 1 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 5 |
| Production time | From 1 day | From 3 days | From 2 days | From 6 days | From 5 days |
World Book Day Bookmarks
A custom Bookmark is a nice treat for children to celebrate World Book Day. Bookmarks can be given to kids to use with their book token books to further encourage them to get reading. They can even be customised with their names.
Image credit: Freepik
World Book Day Stickers
Stickers are a great way to celebrate World Book Day. They can be used as motivational rewards to get children reading, during games, or stuck to their Bookmarks!
Our Custom Stickers come in lots of shapes and sizes, with eco-friendly and biodegradable materials available to ensure your World Book Day celebrations are planet friendly.
World Book Day Posters
Posters are ideal for spreading the word about your World Book Day celebrations. If you’re hosting a fancy dress day, special assemblies or events, Posters help you share the details. We have indoor and outdoor options to ensure everyone has eyes on your plans! To get started, you can download the template below from the World Book Day website.
Need a World Book Day costume?
If you’re struggling to find a World Book Day costume, or fancy dress just isn’t your thing, why not get yourself a printed T-Shirt? Choose a design to show off your favourite book, or go with something to spread the word and get in the spirit!
Image credit: BorderLes
Celebrate World Book Day with Printed.com
However you plan on celebrating World Book Day 2026, we’re here to help! From Stickers and activity books to Bookmarks and Posters, anything that helps children fall in love with reading sounds like a good idea to us. With that in mind, be sure to take advantage of our 15% Education Discount, and explore our collection!
Need a hand? Get in touch by popping an email to theteam@printed.com, we’re happy to help!
About the author
When Ellie's not busy crafting content, you will find her at a gig, knitting or crocheting!
