Céad Míle Fáilte

A Chairde, we are delighted to be celebrating World Book Day in Ireland on Thursday 4th March 2021. Over the last 24 years, World Book Day has become firmly established as Ireland’s biggest annual event promoting the enjoyment of books and reading. The main aim is to encourage children to explore the pleasure of books and reading. This may sound like a very simple idea, but unfortunately, many children do not have access to books in their homes. At World Book Day, we provide children with an opportunity to have a book of their own. Along with all the World Book Day £1 books, we have an exclusive Irish title which children will be able to get for free with their World Book Day tokens. 

To discover all the ways you can celebrate World Book Day this year, have a look at our resource packs for schools: 

Primary School resource pack

Secondary School resource pack

To have a look at all our other resource packs, visit our schools and nurseries hub. 

Visit our World Book Day Ireland FAQs for all the answers to your questions, including how World Book Day is adapting to lockdown this year. 

The 2021 World Book Day £1 book for Ireland

This year’s Irish title is: Lily and the Lissadell Ghost by Judi Curtin, published by O’Brien Press.

Lissadell House, Sligo, 1914

Lily and her friend Nellie are housemaids at Lissadell House. Working in such a big house keeps the girls busy, but they still find time for fun, and friendship Maeve, the madcap daughter of the famous Republican, Countess Marcievicz. So when strange things start to happen at Lissadell – odd noises, food going missing and rumours of a ghost – Sherlock Holmes-fan Maeve is determined to lead an investigation. Between them can the three girls solve the mystery of the Lissadell ghost?

Friendship, history and mystery in early 20th century Ireland.

NCBI Library Access Service is delighted to once again to be collaborating with O’Brien Press to produce Lily and the Lissadell Ghost in Braille. Accessible digital versions will available through www.bookshare.ie

If you wish to reserve a Braille copy or require any information, please email [email protected]

Why not take a sneak peek inside this year’s Irish World Book Day Book? 

This feature is called Book2Look and has been made possible by Nielsen Book, who provide a unique range of services, enabling books to be discovered by book buyers everywhere. Find out more and peek inside all the £1 books here. 

About Judi Curtin: 

Judi Curtin grew up in Cork and now lives in Limerick, where she is married with three children. Judi is the author of Lily at Lissadell, Lily Steps Up, Time After Time, Stand By Me, (for which she won an Irish Book Award), You’ve Got A Friend, and of the bestselling ‘Eva’ and ‘Alice & Megan’ series. With Roisin Meaney, she is the author of See If I Care. Her books have been published in German, Spanish, Portuguese, Welsh, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Turkish, Czech, and in Australia and New Zealand.

Find out about the other World Book Day €1.50 books for 2021 here.

General Information

All material, including Euro Book Tokens, is sent in bulk to Ireland and is despatched to schools by the Irish Department of Education. All Primary and Secondary schools in Ireland automatically receive tokens. There is no need to register. 

Your tokens and information packs should be with you by Friday 18^th February 2021

Other establishments, including Nurseries do not receive tokens automatically. There is limited stock available on request via the Irish email: [email protected]. This operates for a limited period around World Book Day.

You should also use this email address if you do not receive enough tokens for your school.

Please note, if as a Primary or Secondary school, you have previously opted out of receiving mailings from The Education Company, WBD’s mailing house based in England, you will not receive any WBD material. To rectify this situation, please contact the Helpline at [email protected]

General Enquiries: [email protected]
Press Enquiries: Jenny Sharif at Bowe Communications: [email protected]

EVENTS

Every World Book Day hundreds of book related events take place across Ireland in schools, libraries and bookshops.

Keep an eye on our Facebook page or Twitter feed for events happening in your area.

If you are from a school or a library and would like to hold an event for World Book Day start planning now. If you are looking for an author, the Writers in Schools scheme or the Irish children’s book publishers can help. Make sure you make contact well in advance for any request. If you have a particular author in mind, make sure to contact them as early as possible. Many of the well-known authors tend to book out very quickly. Some publishers will also provide posters and display material to your school free of charge.

For more information on the Writers in Schools Scheme log on to Poetry Ireland here or phone on 01-6789815 or email Anna at [email protected]. You can also upload details of your event to the Events area of this site.

Do organise an event and help us celebrate World Book Day and continue the work over the 20 years that has seen World Book Day promote reading in Ireland, celebrating books and opening up the benefits of reading for everyone. If you have any photos of the events you organised last year please email them to [email protected] and we will post them on our Facebook page.