When is World Book Day?
World Book Day 2025 will take place on Thursday 6 March 2025.
This annual celebration of authors, illustrators, books and the joy of reading is one of the highlights of our year at the National Literacy Trust!
Why is World Book Day important?
World Book Day provides a fantastic opportunity to focus on reading for pleasure, supporting children's autonomy in book choice, and embedding a habit of reading that brings a wide range of benefits.
We're always hugely excited to work with our friends at World Book Day, the charity whose mission is to promote reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own.
Read on to access reading for pleasure resources, ideas and activities that can encourage a love of reading throughout the whole year.
A note on World Book Day £1/€1.50 books/tokens
Each year the World Book Day charity releases a brand new line-up of £1/€1.50 books, and issues tokens to schools that have registered. The deadline for registration has closed, but if you have a query about your registration, tokens or the books, please contact World Book Day directly by emailing wbd@education.co.uk or hi@worldbookday.com.
You can find answers to many questions in their helpful World Book Day FAQ section.
World Book Day 2025 event: The Great Big Footy & Booky Quiz
- Date: Thursday 6 March
- Time: 9.30 to 10.45
- Suitable for: ages 8 to 12 (Years 4, 5, 6 and 7/P5, P6, P7 and S1).
- Fun for all: whether or not your class relish reading or are fanatical about football!
Back for a fourth year - bigger and better than ever - it's time to get ready for the World Book Day Premier League Takeover quiz.
The 45-minute quiz will feature two rounds of questions (one football-themed, one reading-themed) pitched by your footballing heroes and our writer pals. Your school has the chance to participate live, win prizes and generally have a ball.
Teaching resources and activity ideas for schools on World Book Day and beyond
The Ultimate Character Champion Battle
New for World Book Day in 2025, we've created an oracy-based classroom resource that encourages your pupils to explore the characters they enjoy reading about the most in a way that celebrates the joy of reading for pleasure and sharing books they love. The activity also encourages creativity in their discussion and presentational talk.
Our teacher guidelines provide full details for hosting a character champion battle in your classroom, including curriculum-links and templates. The guidlines support delivery with these groups:
- ages 5 to 7 (KS1/P1 to P4)
- ages 7 to 11 (KS2/P4 to P7)
- ages 11 to 14 (KS3/S1 to S3).
World Book Day celebration ideas - book choice and pupil voice
Drawing on the six elements that we know support children to read for pleasure, we developed this collection of fun ideas that champion both providing pupils with choice, and giving them a voice, as they progress in their reading journey. Great for World Book Day, but also full of inspiration to support reading for pleasure throughout the year.
Celebrating favourite characters and books
We want to make sure no child is left out of World Book Day, and understand that that families may be under significant financial and time pressures.
Explore our resource to find step-by-step ideas for accessible, classroom-based fun that provide an alternative to dressing up. We aim to ensure that every child can participate in World Book Day, and can celebrate the stories they love, without an expectation for families to provide a costume.
More resources for celebrating storytelling and reading for pleasure
- National Storytelling week - resources packed with practical ideas for learning opportunities that aim to foster a love of storytelling whist developing pupils' speaking and listening skills through chances to explore and listen to stories, as well as tell their own.
- Supporting early years children to tell stories.
- Are you looking for some brilliant ideas to encourage reading for pleasure?
- How to choose books you'll love - a fun animation to share with children to guide them through the process of choosing a book and inspire them to explore the bookshelves.
Premium resources available for those with a subscribed National Literacy Trust membership:
- Developing a whole-school reading environment for primary schools
- Developing a whole-school reading environment for secondary schools
Working with authors and storytellers
Consult our directory of authors and storytellers to help plan a school visit (virtual or in-person) in the coming year.
Read our research on Writer visits and children and young people's literacy engagement for insights on how visits can impact pupils' engagement with reading and writing.
World Book Day for families
Sharing stories is a great way to enjoy time together as a family, and help children build a love of reading for pleasure. Our Words for Life site is packed with ideas for fun, family activities that support children's reading, writing and speaking at home.
Research: Exploring the impact of World Book Day
The National Literacy Trust was commissioned by World Book Day to evaluate the impact of the initiative on the reading lives of children aged 8 to 11 in the UK.
Our report shows how World Book Day welcomes children into the world of books and reading in two ways: by helping all children become book owners, many for the first time, and by supporting a variety of activities and experiences essential for building life-long readers.
See key findings and download our World Book Day research report.