Looking for our 2023 announcements? Find them here.
In 2022, we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of World Book Day on 3 March – with the message for all children ‘you are a reader‘! It will be filled with lots of exciting, celebratory ways to promote reading for pleasure on World Book Day, and all-year round.
We’re excited to be able to share our extensive collection of events, activities, and partnerships that will ensure that more children than ever can have the opportunity to discover a love for reading. Find all our resources for celebrating here. To host your own World Book Day fundraising party, you can download our fundraising pack here.
The £1 book selection
We’re delighted to share with you the new line-up of £1/€1.50 books for 2022 that children can choose for free with their £1/€1.50 book token. With books for beginning, early, fluent and independent readers, there is something for everyone. Alongside the 12 titles available across the UK, we also have two exclusive books for Ireland and a new World Book Day Welsh title! The books will be available from booksellers from 17 February 2022. The token redemption period is from 17 February – 27 March 2022.
Find out everything you need to know about the books and token exchange here.
Exciting events
This year we have 4 amazing online events for you to integrate into your celebrations. For all the details visit our events page.
- LIVE-STREAM: World Book Day LIVE with Matilda and friends
Live from the Cambridge Theatre – home of Matilda the Musical
11.3oam, Monday 28th FebruaryAn exciting line up of World Book Day £1/€1.50 book authors – including Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell will be hosted by rapper MC Grammar and live-streamed from the World Book Day website. The celebration will also feature Chris Riddell, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Allen Fatimaharan, Hannah Lee and other special guests to be announced. World Book Day are working with long-term partners Roald Dahl Story Company, Royal Shakespeare Company and Puffin are working together to ensure children everywhere can join in the fun. - Reality check: Books as a portal into life today with Sharna Jackson, Rashmi Sirdeshpande and Ben Bailey Smith.
11.30am on Wednesday 2nd March. - Using your imagination: Books as a way to imagine the impossible with Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola, Joanna Nadin and Rikin Parekh, Nadia Shireen, Simon Farnaby and Michael Morpurgo
10.00am on Thursday 3rd March - BBC Teach Live Lesson – In partnership with BBC Education. A curriculum-linked live interactive programme to support reading for pleasure.
11.00am on Thursday 3rd March.
Incredible partnerships
- Every year we are delighted that booksellers across the country deliver engaging events and school sessions in celebration of World Book Day.
- 15 of the National Literacy Trust’s Hub Areas in England will work alongside local libraries and retailers to distribute 34,000 £1 books to children and create a World Book Day programme of events to encourage more families to read. This work is funded by an Arts Council project grant for 2020-21, McDonald’s and supported by donations of the 2022 £1 books from publishers.
- 75 Premier League clubs in England will distribute 22,000 £1 books to schools through their Premier League Primary Stars programme in the lead up to World Book Day.
- World Book Day will also continue to work with partners including Read For Good and Children’s Books Ireland to supply 43,000 books to schools, prisons and other needed spaces in communities, to encourage reading and improved literacy.
- The Scottish Book Trust will ensure 3,000 picture books reach families directly through their Book Bug programme, as well as distributing 84,000 tokens to nurseries in Scotland. BookTrust are also distributing 90,000 £1 book tokens via their BookStart coordinators.
- Highlighting the importance of all children having the opportunity to own and be inspired by inclusive stories, written by authors and illustrators who are representative of the society we live in, World Book Day will partner with BookTrust and Waterstones Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell MBE on a special edition of their #PassthePen campaign.
- Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is proud to continue to support World Book Day this year by making the 12 titles available in audio (DAISY CD) and braille formats, free of charge, for young people with vision impairment. Find out more or order your free copy by contacting the RNIB Helpline at [email protected] or 0303 123 9999 to get one of these World Book Day 2022 titles on DAISY CD or in braille. Titles can be pre-ordered from 1 February 2022 for despatch from 1 March 2022. Orders will be taken until 31 March 2022.
Brand new MC Grammar song and performances
Award-winning teacher and star of Sky Kids Wonder Raps MC Grammar (Jacob Mitchell) returns with his second World Book Day song Reading Is Amazing, a follow up to The World Book Day song which was viewed over 850,000 times on You Tube last year.
Fantastic competitions
- To celebrate the 25th birthdays of both Harry Potter and World Book Day in 2022, Bloomsbury has partnered with World Book Day to feature an exclusive competition on the printed £1 book token: offering fans a chance to win a magical Harry Potter trip, as well as runners up prizes of Harry Potter books and National Book Tokens. The competition opens on 17 Feb and ends 27 March 2022 – enter at www.worldbookday.com/harrypotter.
- Schools can share their reading for pleasure practice in our You are a reader competition
- Secondary students can plan their own World Book Day events and win book tokens for their library by sharing their case studies with us.
We’re thrilled that Allen Fatimaharan is our official World Book Day illustrator! You can find Allen’s brilliant illustrations across our website and social media channels. Allen will embark on a two-day window tour of bookshops in the West of England between Oxford and Bristol in February. To find out more about Allen, read his Q&A, here.
All our packs and resources for 2022 are here.
For more information about World Book Day 2022, please visit our FAQs.