World Book Day 2024

This World Book Day, the Lower School welcomed a variety of different authors in the week leading up to, during and after World Book Day. It was a brilliant opportunity for students from Reception to Year 6 to listen to authors and learn more about their writing tips, inspiration and interests, as well as their books!

Willa and Freddie in Year 6 both got to meet Katya Balen, author of October, October, and they said: “We liked learning about the books she wrote and how she writes them, so what she does to get inspiration. During her talk, we got to do two different workshops and one was based on October, October, which is about a young girl who lived in the woods before moving to the city. We were given a piece of candy to eat and then had to write down a description of what it was like from the perspective of someone who had never had candy before. Katya told us that it takes about 40 days to write a book, which is quite a long time, so you have to keep persevering. She also said that you don’t have to think of a title or a cover straight away – you can write the story first and come back to that. Today has really inspired us to keep writing and continue reading – which we both love doing already!”

Olivia, Georga, Zac and Ezra in Year 4 met Ben Lyttleton, author of Football School. When asked about the day, they said: “We enjoyed so much of Ben’s talk! While you would usually sit down and listen to someone talk about their book, we got to play games and competitions, so it was interactive. We got to sing some King Alfred songs, had to pretend to score a goal and come up with a celebration, and we got to do a quiz. It was really interesting to hear about Ben’s writing experience, including the different footballers he met. We also learned about all the different jobs there are involving football – like even the people who are hired to book aeroplanes for away games.”

On actual World Book Day, the Lower School welcomed Nadia Shireen, author and illustrator of books such as Grimwood, Billy and the Beast, and The Bumblebear. Year 3 students Ruby and Rex commented: “It was very fun to hear Nadia talk – she was very funny and nice. She taught us how to draw the characters in her book and we got to draw Eric Dynamite, who was a showbusiness woodlice. Her books are really funny, Grimwood has two foxes that go really hyper when they have coffee! She said how she produces her books: so she writes them in a messy order, sends them to someone and then she writes them in a neat order and then sends them to the publisher to see if they’ll get published. She also mentioned how authors need lots of biscuits! Our favourite part was getting to draw Eric Dynamite.”

Along with hearing from Nadia, the students were involved in a World Book Day costume parade. Even the teachers showed off their fantastic outfits, carefully selected for the day. Take a look at the pictures below to see some of the costumes on display.