March 07, 2024 – World Book Day

World Book Day changes lives through a love of books and shared reading and has an underlying mission to promote reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own.

PURPOSE – To promote reading for pleasure for everyone.

Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income. We want to see more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and the improved life chances this brings them.

World Book Day was created by UNESCO on 23rd April 1995 as a worldwide celebration of books and reading. It is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. The first World Book Day in the UK and Ireland took place in 1997 to encourage young people to discover the pleasure of reading.

As World Book Day founder, Baroness Gail Rebuck, recalls “We wanted to do something to reposition reading and our message is the same today as it was then – that reading is fun, relevant, accessible, exciting, and has the power to transform lives.”

DID YOU KNOW?

• The earliest known work of literature is an epic poem titled the Epic of Gilgamesh. The ancient poem is from Ancient Mesopotamia.

• Top children’s book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, with 1,783,535 sales.

• Top cookery book is Jamie Oliver’s 30-Minute Meals, with 1,743,266 sales.

• You can check out the top selling books of all time here

Use the hashtag #WorldBookDay #LoveBooks

GET INVOLVED – Another great day for anyone to be associated with from showcasing the favourite books/authors of team members to running a poll on favourite authors/books in your sector.

It is often good to highlight favourites in terms of business management books or a good book that has helped address a challenge – personal and relevant (and the sort of social media post that is well received) as long as it is authentic and real.

Always good to have a list on news feeds such as your top management books or something relevant to your sector (eg top travel guides for those in tourism etc) and to use the day to share something that might be of help to someone else.

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