BookTrust celebrates World Book Day 2023
Published on: 01 March 2023
Find out how BookTrust is celebrating World Book Day this year with fun events, tokens and #PassThePen.
Pic: Nadia Shireen
BookTrust is set to celebrate this year's World Book Day taking place on 2 March 2023 with a host of events, new resources and #PassThePen partnerships as part of its work to inspire children and families on their reading journeys.
World Book Day is an important milestone in the year where children, families, early years settings, schools, libraries and more come together to celebrate the life-changing impact that reading and sharing stories can bring children and to inspire them to pick up their next book.
New resources and inspiration to engage children in their early years with World Book Day 2023
This year, for the first time, BookTrust hosted a series of special events for families with children in their early years, creating opportunities for them to come together with World Book Day authors and early years practitioners and create memorable and inspiring moments to share stories together.
Run in partnership with local authorities, events took place in a nursery and libraries in Knowsley, North Somerset, Brent, Medway and Walsall.
Three events were hosted by this year's World Book Day authors Joe Wicks, Sophy Henn and Tom Percival. During the events, children and families enjoyed readings from the authors, and had the chance to take part in activities including a get active session, a creepy crawly life-sized bug hunt and a draw-along linked to the author's story.
Through the events, BookTrust and World Book Day hope to share the message that it's never too early to engage children with sharing stories and books, and to showcase practical examples for how practitioners and settings can use creative and engaging ways to bring stories to life for the children they support.
All the events were filmed, feature an introduction from Waterstones Children's Laureate Joseph Coelho and are available to watch online. Accompanying resources aimed at practitioners are also available to download on the World Book Day website.
Watch Everyday Routines with Joe Wicks
Watch Everyday Adventures with Sophy Henn
Watch Everyday Fun with Tom Percival
#PassThePen returns to highlight up-and coming authors and illustrators of colour
#PassThePen, a BookTrust campaign to champion new and emerging authors and illustrators of colour returns this year in partnership with World Book Day.
#PassThePen sees previous World Book Day authors including BookTrust President Sir Michael Morpurgo, Sharna Jackson and Nadia Shireen sharing their social media platforms with up-and-coming authors or illustrators from diverse backgrounds, helping to promote visibility and champion new underrepresented voices in children's publishing. You can read more about this year's #PassThePen partnerships here.
Beth Suzanna, Rachel Faturoti, and Vikesh Amey Bhatt are taking part in #PassThePen this year
BookTrust shares World Book Day tokens through its network of partners
As part of its continued focus on reaching children and families in their early years and inspiring them on their reading journeys, BookTrust is distributing 2,000 books and 82,000 £1/€1.50 World Book Day book tokens.
Distributed by Bookstart Co-ordinators who work with local authorities, the tokens and books will help reach children across the country with high quality books and stories.
Bookstart is BookTrust's flagship programme that 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
