This year marks the 21st anniversary of World Book Day, which began in 1997 as an effort to encourage children to read as well as being a celebration of books and reading. It takes place on the first Thursday in March in the UK (or the 26th April elsewhere in the world) and is celebrated by over a hundred countries.

World Book Day is often marked with children (and adults!) dressing as their favourite characters from literature and receiving £1 book tokens, which they can use to purchase a specially selected £1 book.

Over the last twenty years, World Book Day has distributed over 290 million £1 book tokens. Last year alone, over 1.2 million tokens were redeemed, which means 1 in 4 children in the UK received a free book as part of World Book Day.

World Book Day is a charity, funded by a wide selection of publishers, as well as a sponsor, who fully fund the cost of the book token redemptions. 

Ten titles are chosen every year after suggestions from publishers, and the World Book Day Team and an independent panel of booksellers choose a list of ten books that would appeal to the broadest range of children possible, ensuring there is a book for all ages and stages.

This year, Milton-Keynes based author and Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain’s childrens’ book is included amongst the titles.

Here are this year’s picks for World Book Day:

●Oi Goat! by Kes Gray and Jim Field (Hodder Children’s Books)

●Mr Men: My Book About Me By Mr Silly written and illustrated by Adam Hargreaves, original concept by Roger Hargreaves (Egmont)

●The Baby Brother From Outer Space! by Pamela Butchart, illustrated by Thomas Flintham (Nosy Crow)

●Paddington Turns Detective and Other Funny Stories by Michael Bond, illustrated by Peggy Fortnum (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

●Nadiya’s Bake Me a Story by Nadiya Hussain, illustrated by Clair Rossiter (Hodder Children’s Books)

●Terry’s Dumb Dot Story: A Treehouse Tale by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton (Macmillan)

●The Girl Who Thought She Was a Dog by Clare Balding, illustrated by Tony Ross (Puffin)

●Brain Freeze by Tom Fletcher, illustrated by Shane Devries (Puffin)

●The Bolds’ Great Adventure by Julian Clary, illustrated by David Roberts (Andersen Press)

●Marvel Avengers: The Greatest Heroes by Alastair Dougall (DK) 

Happy World Book Day