Wonderful Words: How to celebrate International Children’s Book Day

Reading with your little one is a great way to enjoy learning and have some quality time - especially on the 2nd of April - also known as International Children’s Book Day! Here are our wonderful ways to celebrate words on this special occasion.

Write your own book 

What better way to celebrate International Children’s Book Day than by making a book with your little one! All you need is a scrapbook, some colouring pens and a whole lot of imagination. A good way to get things started is to write down leading sentences and let your child fill in the gaps. For example, ‘Once upon a time, there was a ‘boy’ that loved to ‘eat baked beans’. Add illustrations on each page, design a front cover and voila - your child becomes an author on International Children’s Book Day!

Bring some creativity to reading time

Sometimes you need to bring something extra to reading to get your tot into it! There are loads of ways to do this, here are some of our top tips:

• Act out some of the major moments in the book of choice
• Use different voices for each character
• Spark their imagination by asking interesting questions, like “How do you think the character feels now? What does the landscape the characters live in sound like/smell like/look like?”

Create a reading fort

The experience of reading a book can be transformed by where you choose to do it. Why not create a reading fort for your little reader to make International Children’s Book Day even more special. Get a couple of chairs and throw some blankets over it to create a roof, fill the inside with some blankets and pillows to make it comfy, then crawl inside for storytime. Your tot is sure to be excited by reading when they’ve got their own reading fort.

Read and watch 

It might sound absurd but pairing a book with a film version is actually a great exercise to tests your little one’s reading skills. Read the book first and then watch the film version. Work with your tot to point out the differences between the two. It’s a great way to find out how much they’ve understood from reading the book, plus it’s loads of fun too! 

Celebrating International Children’s Book Day is a great way to get your little one into reading. It’s the perfect time to show how much fun books can be. Reading is an important skill for your child to conquer, so try some of our top tips for celebrating!