World Book Day

Robert Long; Siobhan Wilson

World Book Day was created by UNESCO in 1995 as a worldwide celebration of books and reading. World Book Day is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. In the UK and Ireland it is being celebrated on 7 March 2024.

The World Book Day charity’s Strategy 2023-27 sets out that its aim is “more children, from all backgrounds, developing a life-long habit of reading for pleasure, benefiting from the improved life chances this brings them.”

The World Book Day Impact report for 2023 says that the charity promotes reading by:

Celebrating the joy of books, authors, illustrators and reading for pleasure
Transforming attitudes and changing behaviours by providing content to promote reading for fun
Ensuring every child gets to choose a book of their own with the World Book Day £1/ €1.50 books and tokens.

The National Literacy Trust’s Annual Literacy Survey, published in September 2023, recorded the lowest level of reading enjoyment since the Trust began its survey in 2005. The Trust said:

Just 2 in 5 (43.4%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2023. This is the lowest level since we first asked the question in 2005.
Fewer than 3 in 10 (28.0%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they read daily in 2023, matching levels seen in 2022.
Within the 8 to 18 age group, 1 in 2 (52.9%) told us they had been encouraged to read by their parents/carers. 3 in 5 (58.4%) had seen their parents/carers read, while 1 in 5 (19.9%) had read with their family.

The Trust found that a large part of the reason for the decline in reading enjoyment was that that fewer of those who have traditionally enjoyed reading, such as girls and those aged 8 to 11, continued to say they enjoy it.