Haig, Horowitz and James among World Book Day 2020 authors

Authors Matt Haig, Anthony Horowitz and Greg James are among those featured on World Book Day’s 2020 list.

The list, unveiled today (23rd September) at The Bookseller’s Children’s Conference, includes 15 books including picture books, ages five to eight, nine plus, and YA titles.

The list will include Matt Haig will latest in the Evie series, Evie in the Jungle (Canongate), Captain Underpants creator Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man: Three Stories in One (Scholastic) and Laura Ellen Anderson’s newest Amelia Fang (Egmont) book.

Greg James and Chris Smith’s Kid Normal (Bloomsbury) are included for older readers, alongside Onjali Q Raúf’s The Day We Met the Queen (Orion Children’s) and The Case of the Drowned Pearl (Puffin) by Robin Stevens.

YA readers can enjoy the latest in Netflix adapted bookThe Kissing Booth (Penguin) by Beth Reekles, Split (Macmillan) by Muhammad Khan,  Alex Rider Undercover: The Classified Files (Walker) by Anthony Horowitz and World Book Day exclusive My Awesome Guide to Getting Good at Stuff (Wren & Rook) by former Olympian Matthew Syed.

Picture books will include Supertato: Books are Rubbish (Simon & Schuster) and Bing’s Splashy Story (HarperCollins Children’s Books). The list also includes an exclusive title for Ireland Where Are You Puffling (O’Brien Press) by Erika McGann and Gerry Daley.

Horowitz said: ‘World Book Day offers a fantastic array of stories for hundreds of thousands of children every year, opening up worlds of adventure even for those who may not have a single book in their home, and I’m glad that Alex Rider will be a part of that again in 2020."

The announcement was followed by a panel discussion at The Bookseller Children’s Conference with list authors Raul, Haig, Syed and Stevens, chaired by WH Smith head of books Pete Selby. Haig said: “I’m a massive advocate of reading for pleasure. The fact that it’s just there at the centre of the universe is just brilliant.” Stevens added: “This list is so interesting and diverse and I know kids will find a book they really love.”

World Book Day Kristen Grant also announced the charity aims to reach its widest demographic yet in 2020, at The Bookseller’s Children’s Conference today (23rd September). The charity is asking asking schools, bookshops, libraries and children, young people and families at home to share and record online a million stories as part of its Share a Million Stories initiative.

World Book Day will also aim to reach difficult-to-reach children and young people by giving away 24,000 WDB titles to all HM prisons in the UK for the first time, for children visiting parents in prison. Share a Story Live will revisit National Literacy Trust hubs in Manchester and Glasgow and will travel for the first time to Middlesbrough and Bexhill-on-Sea.

Grant said: "World Book Day will start a reading revolution in 2020, taking our Share a Story message out to parents, schools, bookshops, libraries and every child and young person, encouraging them to get involved and help us to Share a Million Stories. Research shows that it takes at least 21 days to form new habits, and we want to do just that by encouraging repeated story-sharing for the whole of World Book Day month, a great window of time to develop new behaviours and habits around books, reading and sharing stories."