Last Thursday, on 6 March, it was World Book Day. As I walked across the meadows and saw an assortment of Harry Potters, Percy Jacksons, and Katniss Everdeens, the floodgates to childhood memories opened. World Book Day was a cherished day for me, with my poor parents trying to assemble a last-minute (yet always overambitious) costume for me every year. I felt an overwhelming sense of relief that the tradition continues.
With many reports of dramatic drops in reading levels across the UK, I just assumed that World Book Day was fading into the distant past. In a world dominated by screens and instant gratification in 5-second bursts, the pleasure of settling down with a book seems increasingly rare.
This year, the World Book Day charity did not set a theme. Instead, their big focus is “reading for pleasure”. The aim is to make reading a choice for children, something that they don’t feel forced into. A recent YouGov poll found that 40 per cent of Britons haven’t read a book in the last year. If excitement for reading could be generated at a younger age, perhaps this number could be lowered. “Making reading fun”, and separating it from tedious schoolwork, is exactly what World Book Day does.
On top of this, World Book Day makes reading far more financially accessible, with a report from the National Literacy Trust finding that the days’ free book tokens allowed many children to become book owners for the first time. The charity also points to a number of free audiobooks and promotes local library access. So, the day is not just dressing up, it is a stepping stone to a lifetime of reading.
World Book Day allows escapism into the invaluable sphere of reading. There was a great line in a TV show I saw a few years ago: “as long as you have a book and a bike you’ll always be free.” I’m not so sure about bikes, but I’d hate the next generation to miss out on the sense of freedom reading has given me.
Illustration by Ava Hewitt @_ava.hewitt_
