‘My baby brother threw up on my jacket’: readers’ World Book Day costume stories

From a failed attempt to dress as Hermione Granger to a Hungry Caterpillar who truly committed to the role, parents and former students on the mad dash to put together a literary outfit

A few years ago my son’s school organised a World Book Day in which pupils were asked to turn up in costume. Two kids turned up wearing full Viking outfits, complete with plastic axes and horned helmets. They looked brilliant. Only trouble was their parents had got the day wrong: they turned up in costume the day before the actual event, and as they had been dropped off by taxi, they had to spend the first part of the day in costume while their fellow pupils were in normal school uniform.
Phil Jones, Surrey

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World Book Day: five simple costumes anyone can make, even in lockdown

Are you left scrambling for paints and glue-guns every year? Never fear – here are some options that Donna Ferguson and nine-year-old Flora put together in less than 30 minutes

It’s World Book Day in the UK and Ireland today, one many parents approach each year with a stomach-clenching sense of dread. I know, because I used to be one of them. I cannot sew, I am useless at craft and I am not the most organised parent in the world. Or even in our house.

But my daughter Flora is nine, and I’ve learned a few tricks over the years. Armed with just four essential items – a professional face-paint kit, safety pins, a stash of coloured card and ribbons – I can throw together a World Book Day outfit in minutes, using the clothes in my daughter’s wardrobe. Here are five options using things most of us will already have in the house, and a good daytime activity that will cheer up those still remote-learning in the UK.

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