World Book Day 2023

World Book Day is celebrated on 2 March 2023 and World Book Day changes children’s lives through a love of books and reading. The mission of World Book Day is to promote reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. I was delighted to pick up a handful of books to give to one of the Schools in Walsall South. Thank you to the Publishers Association for organising the event in Parliament enabling MPs to speak to publishers about how we can promote World Book Day every day. 

Research has shown that :

• Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success, more than family circumstances, parents’ educational background or income.
• Reading for pleasure is at its lowest level in 18 years; fewer than 1 in 2 (47.8%) children aged 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading in 2022.
• 500,000 children in the UK don’t have a book of their own.

And that is why World Book Day is such an important initiative. To add to spreading the word about World Book Day I tabled an Early Day Motion which draws attention to this initiative and which has received cross-party signatures. The full text of the EDM is:

“That this House supports World Book Day in its mission to promote reading for pleasure; commends this success in distributing 50 million book tokens annually to children; with a further 101,000 books donated to children by publishers, the Arts Council and others; notes reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success; further notes with concern that reading for pleasure is at its lowest level since 2005, with fewer than one in two children and young people aged nine to 18 saying they enjoyed reading; recognises the importance of children from all backgrounds having the opportunity to choose and own a book; calls on all Members of the House to be reading champions for their constituencies; and warmly welcomes World Book Day’s celebration in schools and homes across the United Kingdom on 2 March 2023.”

I will be visiting Old Church C of E Primary in Darlaston to give them the books given by the Publishers Association.

A link to the World Book Day website can be found here: World Book Day About Us