Breakfast and a Book: Planning Your World Book Day Event
In 2024 World Book Day partnered with Magic Breakfast to deliver breakfast and book gifting events. The initiative promotes literacy, generates enthusiasm for reading, and ensures no child starts the day too hungry to learn – a wonderful opportunity to celebrate books whilst providing a nutritious breakfast. This year we’re sharing the idea with everyone.
Key Planning Decisions:
• Participant selection – Will this be a targeted or universal offer? If you already run a breakfast provision, will you extend it for the day?
• When and where – Will this be a before school or first activity in the classroom? How will you organise the breakfast element?
• Book sourcing – Children can use school bookstock or bring books from home. If the latter, this presents an excellent opportunity to build your classroom library with donated titles.
• Distribution method – Will you invite students to choose a wrapped book, run a secret gift exchange where children select books for one another, or allow participants to pick their own?
• Family engagement – Consider inviting parents to attend or to take away from the event, encouraging book choice and shared reading at home.
• Documentation and celebration – Plan to capture the morning through interviews with children as they unwrap their books. Share outcomes via social channels, parent hubs, or newsletters to highlight your key messages and impact.
Advance Preparation:
• Ask children to identify a book (from home or school) that they believe others will enjoy
• Provide time for wrapping books in plain paper, with opportunities for decoration or character illustrations
• Where appropriate, model how children might share their book recommendations, encouraging them to articulate why they enjoyed the book
On the Day:
• Books remain wrapped during the breakfast session, building anticipation. Once chosen, children take their books to class to unwrap and begin reading, creating a calm and positive start to the school day.
• The initiative is fully flexible, allowing your school to offer breakfast in the setting and at the time that works best for you and your pupils. Your school simply provides the breakfast, and the approach can be shaped to suit your community’s needs.
