World Book Day’s annual campaign focused on encouraging children to read for pleasure

World Book Day’s (WBD) annual campaign is focused on encouraging children to read for pleasure this year. The charity’s “Read Your Way” campaign aims to support children in building a lifelong habit of reading for fun, as bookshops, publishers, libraries and schools across the country prepare for a series of WBD activity in the next week.

“Children have told us they feel judged on their reading ability and choices, so this year World Book Day’s reading for pleasure campaign is putting children’s voices first,” WBD c.e.o. Cassie Chadderton told The Bookseller. “We’re encouraging everyone to give children a choice, and a chance, to grow up with the life changing benefits of reading for enjoyment. From publishers and booksellers, to libraries and schools, it’s amazing to have such support from the industry and beyond for our charity’s annual campaign to create the readers of the future.”  

WBD will take place on Thursday 7th March, while this weekend will see the close of an interactive bookshop tour that has been taking place since 15th February in UK high streets. Supported by the £1 National Book Token books, Waterstones across the country — and independent bookshops such as The Children’s Bookshop in Muswell Hill, London, and Quinns Bookshop in Market Harborough, Leicestershire — have been hosting events with authors including Tọlá Okogwu, Rob Biddulph and Louie Stowell.

Children in disadvantaged areas have had the chance to meet WBD £1 authors and illustrators such as Alex Falase-Koya and Rosie Jones at 20 libraries across the country. This is thanks to a partnership project between the charity and UK libraries, funded by Arts Council England through its National Lottery Project Grants programme, and Julia and Hans Rausing.

Moreover, Michael Morpurgo OBE will meet up to 40 families of children with a vision impairment in an online World Book Day event being held by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) on Saturday 9th March.

Meanwhile, a group of university presses — all signatories to the EvenUP commitment to equity, diversity and inclusivity – have launched a new initiative, with aim of inspiring the next generation of publishers through work with their local secondary schools. EvenUP: Publishing For All will see the university presses at Bristol, Cambridge, Liverpool, Manchester and Princeton commit to work with local schools on or around World Book Day. The programme for the event will include gamified publishing tasks for students to complete and opportunities to discuss future careers with university press staff, alongside a general introduction to the industry. The initiative seeks to broaden the staff recruitment pipeline for publishing at an early stage.

Andersen Press has also partnered with TV and social media sensations Ollie and Gareth Locke to read the publisher’s £1 WBD book Elmer and the Patchwork Story by David McKee.