Go beyond the page for World Book Day 2015

Posted on 28 January 2015

Be it picture books or facts books, board books or classic novels – here at Scholastic, we are big fans of books! We love them and we can’t get enough of them. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to enjoy books other than just reading them, especially if you’re sharing stories with your kids.

This World Book Day (5th March), why not try sharing a story with your kids, and then continue the story off the page? Here are some top tips to get you started!

1) Get busy with activities. Have a look for activity sheets that star your child’s favourite book characters and get busy colouring, cutting, sticking, quizzing and chatting about the characters and stories. We’ve got a whole heap of activity sheets to choose from over on the Zone website. The World Book Day team also have a plethora of sheets over here.

2) Chat about the books you read. After finishing a book, chat to your kids about the story – Which bits they love? Would they have changed the ending? Which character did they most identify with? They could even write a book report about a favourite book.

3) Get creative. Get your kids to draw characters or scenes from a favourite book, purely from the description in the book.

4) Create your own book quiz. Create a quiz about the kids’ favourite books and authors. You could also include classic quotes, or create a picture quiz starring favourite illustrations. You could even hold a party with friends or classmates and test their book knowledge. Who’ll come out on top?

5) Attend a book event. Whether it’s at your local bookshop or library, at the kids’ school or one of the big World Book Day events, inspire the kids to read by taking them to a live author event.

We’ve got authors appearing at events across the country for World Book Day’s The Biggest Book Show on Earth tour:

• Martin Brown. Thursday 26th February, Bath, Bath Pavilion.
• Cerrie Burnell. Friday, 27th February. Dudley, The Earls High School
• Liz Pichon & Nick Sharratt. Monday 2nd March. Glasgow, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

6) Dress up! Whether it’s Harry Potter, Katniss, Tom Gates or Matilda, be inspired by your favourite book character and dress up for World Book Day. We’ve got loads of ideas for you over on our Book Character Dress Up Pinterest board.

7) Get writing. Writing stories is a great way to teach kids about storytelling but it can be hard to get started. To get them going, kids can take characters from their favourite books and write them into a new story. Will they visit a new world? Meet other book characters? Or visit this world? Let the kids decide!

8) Create new stories. Help the kids write their own stories, create comics and draw their own illustrations.

9) Design book jackets. Get the kids to choose their favourite classic fairy story, maybe it is Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty or Jack and the Beanstalk, and set them the task of designing a new cover.