March marks the 25th anniversary of World Book Day.
For parents there is the nightmare of having to come up with a last-minute costume, amusingly depicted by the BBC comedy Motherland and numerous internet memes. My favourite is the picture that went viral, of two confused-looking children in regular school uniform carrying a toaster and a hairdryer. The caption reads: ‘My children dressed as the Argos catalogue’.
As an English teacher, I have to admit that I enjoy the dressing up, story time and author events. Last year’s World Book Day took place during lockdown, but so many of my students joined online lessons dressed up as anything from the elderly members of The Thursday Murder Club to a T-Rex (Jurassic Park, obviously!).
The importance of reading
This year’s theme is ‘You are a reader’, and there will be a specific focus on encouraging all children to see themselves as readers. Schools give out £1 book tokens which can be redeemed for a complete short book by a bestselling children’s author or put towards a full-price book of the child’s choice.
But why this focus on books and reading? A survey carried out in 2017 by Aviva revealed that 10% of all homes have no books at all. This is particularly worrying when studies have shown that reading for pleasure is more important to a child’s development than how educated their parents are (IoE study 2013). Historically, evangelical Christians have been at the forefront of promoting literacy. The value that the Puritans placed on being able to read the Bible for yourself drove extremely high literacy rates for both men and women on both sides of the Atlantic. Today, Wycliffe Bible Translators work with communities around the world to improve literacy in conjunction with their vital Bible translation work.
People of the Book
Christianity is often described as a word-centred religion; Muslims refer to Jews and Christians as ‘People of the Book’. As evangelicals, we hold to the Reformation maxim of ‘sola scriptura’, and the Bible itself uses the powerful image of Jesus as the Word become flesh. But what about those who find reading hard? Are they missing out? As the mother of a severely dyslexic child, I am so grateful for the wealth of children’s Bibles at all different reading levels as well as fantastic graphic Bibles and initiatives like the Bible Society’s dyslexia-friendly Bible books and the Good News translation aimed at lower reading ages.
As Martin Luther famously said: ‘The Scriptures are the cradle in which we find the Christ’. God has spoken to us through His Son, and we find that message in His word, the Bible, but we must be careful not to exclude those who can’t read or find it difficult.
Making Bible study accessible
So much of our Bible study can depend on the ability to sight-read or use high-level comprehension skills, but it doesn’t have to! Using a clear translation, having a good reader read aloud to the group (or the wonderful David Suchet on CD or Audible), photocopying and expanding a passage to A3 size and using coloured pens to mark key words, are all ways to make Bible study more accessible. Our church also uses a dyslexia-friendly font for all words that are projected on screen and provides sermon-sheet handouts to help navigate the passage.
On World Book Day, we should remember that the Bible is the bestselling book in the world. It contains the words of eternal life; let’s make sure it is read and understood in our churches, towns, country and across the globe.
When did you last get lost in a good book?
A YouGov poll in 2025 stated that 40% of UK adults have not read or listened to a single book …