Of course we say "World Book Day" as if there is just one, but it isn’t quite like that.

There are in fact two "World Book Days".  In the UK and Ireland we do it on 3 March (apparently to avoid having the day during the Easter holidays).  The rest of the world does it on 23 April.

However the date is not the only confusing thing.  The real title is World Book and Copyright Day, although in some places it is known as International Day of the Book.

But whatever it is called and whenever it is done it is a UNESCO organised event to promote reading and publishing, and it started in 1995.
23 April was originally chosen as a day to celebrate books in 1923, by booksellers in Spain in tribute to Miguel de Cervantes who died on that day.  These days they have a two-day ceremonial reading of Don Quixote to mark the occasion.  (Co-incidentally it is also the date of the Catalonian festival where roses and books were given as gifts to loved ones).

And (and I am sure you already spotted this) it is also the anniversary of the birth and death of Shakespeare.  Although to be exactly correct while Shakespeare died on 23 April by the Julian calendar that we used in England at the time, he didn’t actually die on the same day as Cervantes, as he (Cervantes) lived under the Greogorian calendar.

Tony Blair launched the first UK version of World Book Day in 1998 at the Globe Theatre where schoolchildren are given a £1 World Book Day Book Token to be redeemed against any book in any UK bookseller. A specially created WBD anthology priced at £1 is also published.

The number of children receiving a free £1 World Book Day Book Token has increased every year.  In 2007, World Book Day celebrated its 10th anniversary with the publication of 10 £1 books.

In 2009 West End in Schools revived the theatrical connection with World Book Day as the company began to take West End actors into schools across the UK to perform literacy related plays specially written for primary school audiences and with books as the central theme.

Since then the time around World Book Day has become their most active period, and schools often book some way in advance to secure a performance on or around World Book Day.

Feedback from schools for these performances is invariably incredibly positive.  Here’s one that we received this week…

"We have a big focus on reading this term and this has already had an impact with classes all reading the books beforehand. The Yr6 children were enthralled although they would never have expected to be!  Teachers now feel if they had known how good it was going to be they would have planned more in."

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