World Book Day 2022: What you can expect to see from BookTrust
Published on: 28 February 2022
World Book Day turns 25 this Thursday, 3 March 2022, and this year is all about celebrating the past, present and future of children's reading.
As part of the celebrations, BookTrust will be running a collection of events, influencer-led activities, and initiatives to ensure that more children than ever can have the opportunity to discover a love for reading.
Here are some of the activities you can expect to see...
#PassThePen
#PassThePen is an initiative launched by Waterstones Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell and BookTrust in 2020 to support and promote emerging creators of colour.
For 2022, BookTrust has teamed up with Cressida Cowell and World Book Day 2022 for a very special edition of #PassThePen. World Book Day legacy authors and illustrators of the last 25 years will be paired with up-and-coming writers and illustrators of colour to champion new voices and help give all children the chance to read a range of books that reflect them and their wider communities.
Emerging author Sabine Adeyinka who will be 'passed the pen' by Holly Smale, author of the Geek Girl series, said:
'Reading is fun and helps focus and engage the minds of young people. From a young age, children are able to listen and repeat stories that will help them engage with different places, people, and ideas.
'The #PassThePen campaign is particularly great for underrepresented groups in the literary world. We need to see writers from across the world represented, including authors of colour, so that young people from all walks of life can see themselves in the stories they read.'
I Am a Tiger – Online Event
Joining BookTrust's World Book Day festivities will be the author of the brilliant picture book I Am a Tiger, Karl Newson, who will be taking part in a special online event.
I Am a Tiger was chosen by BookTrust to be the Time to Read book for 2021, meaning that it was given free to every reception-aged child in England and Northern Ireland.
Karl will be hosting a live read-along for all three books in his I Am a Tiger series, published by Macmillan Children's Books, including I Am a Tiger, I Am Not an Elephant and I Can Roar Like a Dinosaur, all of which are illustrated by Ross Collins.
Starting at 11am, the free event is open to all and will be available to watch via the BookTrust YouTube page or Facebook page. As well as reading all three books in the series, Karl will take part in a live Q&A, where he will explore some of the themes of his books and answer questions from the audience.
Bookstart Vouchers
To help support children and families in their early years, BookTrust are distributing 90,000 £1 book tokens via Bookstart co-ordinators, who are employed by local authorities to help distribute books and resources to practitioners, children and families.
The vouchers play a key part in achieving the goals BookTrust shares with local authorities to provide access to high-quality, diverse and inclusive to books to more families.
Bookstart aims to encourage a love of books, stories and rhymes in children from as young an age as possible, with a focus on providing books and resources to 0-5s. The programme helps to offer books, resources and support to children and families in every local authority to support a reading journey from the very first year of their life.
Topics: News
