It’s that time of year again… this Thursday 4th March is World Book Day 2021! On a mission to promote reading for pleasure, World Book Day was created by UNESCO on 23rd April 1995 as a worldwide celebration of books and reading.
It is now marked in over 100 countries around the globe, and aims to help more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, gain a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and the improved life chances this brings them. Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income.
Over the years, we have marked World Book Day in various ways, providing books for children’s events and organising events with prisons to mark the day. Our prison consultant, David Kendall, works in collaboration with World Book Day each year to get tens of thousands of WBD £1 books into every prison around the UK, so that parents in prison and their children at home can share reading experiences:
“One of the comments that has come up repeatedly this year was how great it was to see families start reading together, and then take those books away to carry on reading at home.”
This year, we have sent books to Edison Primary School in Hounslow so that pupils can receive a book on World Book Day.
World Book Day have come up with lots of great ways to get involved this year. Have a look at their website to find out more: https://www.worldbookday.com/