World Book Day: The reading for fun charity
World Book Day champions the fun of reading, because it seriously improves lives. Reading for fun is the single biggest indicator that a child will grow up to enjoy a happier and more successful life – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational backgrounds or their income. But here’s the challenge, it’s at an all-time low, with only 1 in 3 children now saying they enjoy reading. Children are more likely to read if they enjoy it, so together we're on a mission to encourage children to see reading as an entertaining, social and fun thing to do.

World Book Day is supported by the Booksellers Association and the Publishers Association, and sponsored by National Book Tokens. Our support helps the charity to encourage more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to grow up with a life-long, life-changing habit of reading for fun, and all the benefits this brings.

World Book Day encourages reading for fun through the annual event in March, with its fun joy and celebration, and through year-round activities that support families, schools, libraries, bookshops and communities to help children love reading. 

Every year, the charity offers every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. They distribute more than 15 million £1/€1.50 book tokens across the UK and Ireland each year. 1 in 4 children receiving Free School Meals say the book they 'bought' with their £1/€1.50 book token was the first book they had of their own. As a result of World Book Day, 43% of children make more time to read and 48% find reading more fun (National Literacy Trust, Annual Literacy Survey 2025).

The next World Book Day takes place in the UK and Ireland on Thursday 5th March 2026.

Creating the readers of the future
Bookshops are a big part of what makes World Book Day special. Thanks to you, World Book Day brings the transformative power of reading for fun to more children and young people.

As well as holding celebrations for World Book Day, bookshops help create the £1/€1.50 token and £1/€1.50 book exchange that is so important to World Book Day and to children in the UK and Ireland. You give children the chance to experience choosing and owning a book – for free.
To find out more about how you can join in World Book Day and sign up to be a participating bookseller, visit worldbookday.com/booksellers

Get in touch with the World Book Day team by emailing [email protected]