WBD 2020 was almost the last bit of normality before Lockdown 1 started and here we are again preparing ourselves to celebrate WBD 2021 in lockdown. With schools and bookshops closed and live author events a distant memory just what can schools and parents do? The WBD mission: “Changing lives through a love of books and shared reading” is as vital as ever. Books have been a lifeline for many throughout the pandemic. How can we make sure no child is missing out?

Well, as you would expect, the WBD team have not been standing still and have planned to facilitate a lockdown celebration in the best way possible. So, to put your mind at rest the £1 printed vouchers will still be delivered to your school. But there is now also the option to get a single use digital token which schools can email to parents at home. This can be printed at home or shown to booksellers on a phone or tablet screen (check first to see if they accept it that way) You can request digital tokens  here www.worldbookday.com/digital-book-token.The token will also be  printed on McDonald’s Happy Meal boxes through February and March, and in some children’s magazines. In other good news tokens will be valid beyond the normal 28 March cut off, whilst stocks last. Do warn parents that the token cannot be used for online purchases, but also make sure they are aware that major supermarkets will be stocking the £1 books and those shops remain open everywhere!

Having been part of the selection panel for the 2021 £1 books I am very proud of the diverse range of titles this year. In another innovation the website has a new sneak peek feature powered by Book2Look technology provided by Nielsen. This will be fabulous for generating interest in the books over a digital connection and enabling children to read a sample before deciding which they would like to get. In addition, all the authors and illustrators have produced fantastic video resources in the Author & Illustrator Academy (www.worldbookday.com/online-masterclasses)  Each inspirational ‘lesson’ is a complete package with downloadable activities, creative challenges, resources and extracts to go with each video.

You will see videos from previous years in the academy too and there are a host of resources and activities on the site including audiobooks, activity sheets and discussion guides (arranged into Primary, secondary and nursery hubs to make it easier for you to find) and of course everything is available all year round so you can screen them in class (or at home) at ANY TIME that suits you. These include lovely Share a Story Corner video books, themed and age differentiated reading recommendations and the top 100 stories to share as voted by the public. Something to make all parents aware of!

But what about the celebration?  The good news is that you can watch fabulous live events on 3rd, 4th and 5th of March at 10.30am each day. Wednesday’s theme is Books that Make you LOL! Starring Humza Arshad, Alex Bellos & Ben Lyttleton (Football School), Jonny Duddle and Zanib Mian. Thursday is the World Book Day special – Bringing Reading to Life- starring Joseph Coelho and Fiona Lumbers, Tom Fletcher and Lydia Monks. Then on Friday the theme is Books and the Real World- starring Sita Brahmachari, Jess French and Katherine Rundell. Each show will last approximately 30 minutes, but again these videos will remain accessible to be used at any time. You can find out more about each event here: worldbookday.com/events  and children can submit  advance questions to their favourite author now.

Two other exciting developments this year are particularly valuable during lockdown. The first is the World Book Day Book Club – a safe online space for children and young people. Starting in March with a brilliant book – High Rise Mystery by Sharna Jackson – each month there will be a new book. Tune into YouTube, read along,  talk to authors and more. Sign up to the newsletter here www.worldbookday.com/bookclub An online reading community is a great substitute for your library clubs. Launching on the 18th Feb is the World of Stories, free audiobooks with a selection of Picture books, Young Fiction, Fiction and Teen. Although audio and ebooks are freely available from your local public library a high- profile website providing this access may tempt extra readers.

WBD is of course a high-profile event which extends its influence across the whole industry and beyond the authors, illustrators and publishers directly involved with the £1 books. It would normally be an important source of income for authors since school visits would be in such demand. The majority of authors are offering online events with schools, but it is important to realise that these cannot always be free. With typical generosity in the first lockdown many authors made available free videos, readings and resources but that is not sustainable for them in the long term. Be sensitive to their need for income too!

Most authors have their own websites but don’t forget sources such as Authorfy (authorfy.com) which also has a very valuable list of publisher permissions for online book reading in schools (authorfy.com/publisherpermissions) as well as some fabulous free video resources and activities. Authors Aloud is one of the foremost booking agencies for author visits and they have adapted to the crisis with Authors Online authorsalouduk.co.uk/authors-online.

Other organisations celebrate WBD too. The Bournville Book Festival from the Everybody Reads organisation everybodyreads.co.uk/world-book-day-2021 is offering virtual author events  beginning on Mar 1st with a fabulous line up including  Michael Rosen, Benjamin Zephaniah, Nick Sharratt, Cressida Cowell, Jonny Duddle, Tom Palmer, Steve Butler & Steve Lenton and one of this year’s World Book Day authors, Katherine Rundell. Still time to register on the link above. Similarly the Children’s Bookshow has gone online with 6 live events over three days in the first week of March. You can also opt to access the recording after the event rather than have tickets to attend live. They have also got their Bookshow At Home weekly sessions available.

Or you could sign up for a free Arabian Nights streamed Storytelling Performance for KS1 and 2 with Bafta award winning storyteller Alia Alzougbi. There are two live performances on 3rd March: www.settlestories.org.uk/whats_on/world-book-day-2021

The Really Big Pants Theatre company have just created a brand new show for EYFS/KS1 classes and families called THE REALLY BIG LOVE BOOK DAY PLAY; a highly visual 20 minute treat especially for online viewing to encourage young children to pick up a book. They have also adapted their hour-long storytelling show Suddenly to a virtual presentation. Fabulous value for money and loads of supporting resources. See also https://westendinschools.org.uk/lockdown-enrichment  or https://www.ascreatives.com/world-book-day-digital-packages/

Schools often try to combine bookfairs with WBD celebrations to encourage book ownership and reading and these too have had to adapt to a virtual format. Usborne has a network of Independent Organisers who can arrange the whole thing for you. There are also some great videos, activities and resources as well as contact details here usborne.com/gb/schools/world-book-day Bookworms is another great low cost virtual fair  (every book is £2.50 with free delivery into school) www.bookwormsonline.co.uk/virtual-book-sale.

Even small independent publishers like Guppy Books are proactive about WBD. They are launching Guppy School on March 4th featuring resources and activities and are offering Zoom visits and related direct book sales with some of their wonderful award-winning authors.

The now traditional way of celebrating WBD has been dressing up as a book character – to the extent that the official website has had to say that the celebration is not all about fancy dress. This has not deterred commercial firms promoting their costumes and you can find endless posts with really creative suggestions for costumes to be made at home! The challenge this year is how you can still capture that enthusiasm virtually? If your school has a daily check in online, students could be encouraged to come in costume or with a prop that would help classmates to guess their favourite book. Or in celebration of pandemic style I loved the suggestion of masked readers filmed with a book and reading an extract and students must guess who? Also utilising another pandemic theme instead of rainbows decorating windows how about designing book covers and a local trail to follow on the daily exercise, with community voting for the book they most wanted to read? Or a competition for the best book character made from fruit/veg/ lego/toilet rolls etc? One school is trying to fill every 15/30-minute slot through the day with a video reading of a book excerpt if they can recruit enough volunteers. (If you have not joined already the Facebook group Reading For Pleasure in Schools is well worth your time and the source of many of these ideas).

In fact I think that in many ways schools and young readers will have benefitted from the unusual circumstances over the past year and I think some things will become permanent features of the relationship between authors and their readers. It has certainly led to the democratisation of author events – no longer restricted to those with the budget to afford it. Many authors have discovered their talent for virtual interaction and all of us have upskilled. The main and only thing that matters is enthusing young readers and getting them engaged in the one thing, more than any other, which will enhance their life opportunities and their wellbeing. Good luck with anything that you offer and don’t forget to share #WorldBookDay #ShareAStory.

Joy Court

Joy Court is Reviews Editor for The School Librarian journal, a Trustee and member of the National Council of the United Kingdom Literacy Association where she sits on the selection panel for the UKLA Book Awards and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of The English Association.

And don't forget, LoveReading4Schools  are here all year round to offer support and advice and the best book recommendations for your libraries and classrooms.