World Book Day: changing lives through a love of books and reading

World Book Day is a charity whose mission is to promote reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. World Book Day is supported by the Booksellers Association and the Publishers Association, and sponsored by National Book Tokens.

World Book Day encourages reading for pleasure through the annual event in March, with its fun joy and celebration, and through year-round activities that support families, schools, libraries, bookshops and communities to help children love reading.

The next World Book Day will take place in the UK and Ireland on 6 March 2025. 

Why is World Book Day needed?
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 (Source: OECD). But, in the UK, almost 1 million children don’t have a book of their own and reading for pleasure is at its lowest level since 2005. (Source, National Literacy Trust)
 
World Book Day wants to see more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and the improved life chances this brings them.

• 1 in 5 of children receiving free school meals say the book they receive with their World Book Day book token was the first book they had of their own
• As a result of World Book Day, 43% of children make more time to read and 48% find reading more fun

(Source: National Literacy Trust)

Creating the Readers of the Future

Bookshops are a big part of what makes World Book Day special. Thanks to you, World Book Day brings the transformative power of reading for pleasure to more children and young people.

As well as holding celebrations for World Book Day, bookshops help create the £1/€1.50 token and £1/€1.50 book exchange that is so important to World Book Day and to children in the UK and Ireland. You give children the chance to experience choosing and owning a book – for free.

To find out more about how you can join in World Book Day and sign up to be a participating bookseller, visit worldbookday.com/work-with-us/booksellers

Get in touch with the World Book Day team by emailing [email protected]