Celebrating the gift of books!

Today is World Book Day, and the day on which the gift of books, and reading, is celebrated worldwide. Many schools take part by giving out book tokens to each child to go towards the cost of buying a book. Some also encourage the children (and staff!) to dress up for a day, perhaps as their favourite character from a book, or as a character from a book chosen by the school.

My sons' primary school decided a few weeks ago that their theme for World Book Day was going to be The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson's wonderful story about a mouse who uses his intelligence and quick-thinking to escape multitude dangers in the forest, including The Gruffalo himself.

This singular theme certainly provided many parents with a bit of a challenge! After much deliberating over their choice of character, searching for masks on the internet, colouring in, stapling and glueing, my boys were ready to go! Thomas (6) went as The Gruffalo, Oliver (7) dressed up as the mouse and my eldest son, Harry, aged 10, decided that he was not going to go as a character but part of the forest! He, therefore, dressed as a tree!

They looked wonderful and it was such a lovely thing to do as a family; to spend time thinking about how we were going to approach this and all muck in and help each other get the various parts of the costumes ready.

At the school gates, the boys joined their friends and delighted in the many Gruffalo-related sights to be seen! This is one of the heart-warming parts of a day such as this; the celebration of books and reading itself, but also the sense of community that comes when others join together in celebration.

Today gives the opportunity for people to celebrate their enthusiasm for books together; to think about how, once we have been given the gift of reading, there is scope to be truly inspired by others' thoughts, ideas and imagination.

Passing on the gift of reading is precious. My mother used to read to me with such enthusiasm and spent a lot of time listening to me read and encouraging me. I am sure that this had a huge impact on developing my love of reading, and I am so thankful to her for that. I am now doing my best to pass on this gift to my own children, and it is really very special to sit and read with them and see the moment when their faces light up when they realise that "I can read this myself!!"

I give thanks for books today, for those who write them, and for those who bring them alive by illustrating them. I give thanks for the gift of reading, and for those who take time and care to pass on this gift so that others may share with them the joy of reading.