World Book Day costume ideas: The best easy, cheap and last-minute children’s fancy dress options for 2022

World Book Day will be celebrated across the globe this Thursday highlighting the importance of reading for pleasure.

Beloved by children in the UK as a fun opportunity to ditch uniform and come to school in literary-based fancy dress, for parents it can be a very different experience.

A last-minute scramble to pull together a costume related to a book character can be a request too far for busy parents just trying to get through the school week with book, bags, packed lunches and PE kits dispatched on the right day.

Author Georgina Durrant tweeted: “Could World Book Day be more about books and less about costumes?”

While BBC technology editor and mother-of-three Zoe Kleinman wrote: “Bloody world book day.

“Have a son in tears, scared of being laughed at, thinks it will be best if he just wears his uniform.

“I really hate this event.”

We have a look what the day means and the best last-minute costume ideas to ensure kids are happy and parents are not out of pocket.

World Book Day was created by UNESCO on 23 April 1995 as a worldwide celebration of books and reading and 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, recalled: “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.”

Working with authors, illustrators, publishers, bookshops, libraries and schools, organisers encourage children and young people to focus on reading for the day with events, book offers and at many schools the chance to become a book character for the day.

Easy wins are David Walliams’ character Mr Stink or Roald Dahl’s The Twits.

Both require scruffy hair, dishevelled and dirty clothes and if possible a beard for Mr Stink and Mr Twit.

Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit can also be achieved with a blue top and a pair of rabbit ears, accessorised with a couple of carrots.

Or a blue top and some bandages tied around you child’s head will complete the look for Roger Hargreaves’ Mr Bump.

If your child has a duffle coat for school, then wellies, a large hat and some marmalade sandwiches are all that’s required for Michael Bond’s Paddington Bear.

And those with a red and white-striped top just need a pair of glasses drawn on their face to become the lead character of Where’s Wally?