World Book Day 2022 last minute costumes with Amazon Next Day delivery: Harry Potter, Matilda, The Gruffalo
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Many parents will be familiar with the horror all too well: the moment, at dinner on Wednesday night, when you best beloved child mentions “it’s World Book Day on Friday and I want to go as Superworm.”
It’s a dread feeling, doing the mental calculus to realise you won’t be able to make it to the shops in between meetings tomorrow, and you certainly don’t have the time or resources to fashion a costume of your own design. There are times, we firmly believe, when it is OK to throw money at the situation, and World Book Day can be one of them.
Enter: Amazon Next Day Delivery.
By our reckoning, rather than pretend to be seamtress/tailor when you are not, one of the below costumes will save you the money and stress - and allow you to spend some timing actually, you know, reading, with your child. Which is after all the point.
From Harry Potter to the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Violet Beauregard to Elmer the Elephant there’s a World Book Day costume below for all boys and girls, aged three months to 12 plus.
What is World Book Day?
World Book Day is an initiative designed to encourage children to read and to LOVE books.
Set up by United Nations culture agency Unesco in 1995, it first reached the UK in 1997. 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the UK celebrating World Book.
Every year, 15 million book tokens are given to children under the age of 18 through their school or nursery.
These can be redeemed at most bookshops for any one of around a dozen titles that are put on sale specifically for World Book Day.
Or they can be used to get £1 off a book or audiobook.
When is World Book Day 2022?
World Book Day 2022 is set to take place on Thursday 3 March 2022.
However, World Book Day book tokens will be valid at participating retailers between Thursday 17 February and Sunday 27 March.
Why are costumes encouraged?
Costumes are a fun and exciting way to help get children engaged with World Book Day, and in turn get them interested in reading.
Dressing up as their favourite book characters is intended to not only get children interested in reading books themselves, but also to have a conversation with their friends about the books that inspired their outfits and ultimately share those stories.
World Book Day costumes aren’t just for kids either. Teachers and parents are always welcome to dress up too.
We’ve also rounded up even more children’s World Book Day costumes, but you’ll have to act fast to get these in time for the big day as they come from retailers.
There’s not much that needs to be said about this outfit, simply because Harry Potter has been loved by children for generations so it needs little explanation.
Bring the main character from JK Rowling’s best-selling fantasy novel series to life with this costume.
The outfit package includes the famous Gryffindor cape, Harry’s iconic glasses and that all important wand so they can cast all their favourite spells.
One size fits all, but best suited to children aged 5 to 8.
What better costume for your little girl on World Book Day than the most famous little bookworm of them all, Matilda, from Roald Dahl’s iconic book of the same name.
The outfit package includes the blue dress, which features some books which look like illustrations taken straight out of the book, along with Matilda’s signature sweet red hair bow.
Available for ages 4 to 10, with prices ranging between £13.94 and £15.48 depending on size chosen.
Your little one will be in for a day of adventures of their own in this sweet outfit inspired by the title character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
This outfit package includes Alice’s signature blue, dress, with the attached apron and also a cute headband to finish the look.
Available for ages 3 to 12 plus, with prices ranging between £13.19 and £22.79 depending on size chosen.
Ever popular with young children, and their parents, over 20 years ago The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson, tells the story of a monster and a mouse who travel through the forest and meet lots of other creatures on the way.
This outfit package comes with everything your little monster needs to transform themselves in to the loveable Gruffalo, a cape, mask and little gloves with claws on.
There’s endless hours of roleplay fun to be had in this outfit, long after World Book Day is over.
Your little one will love exploring (lots of different books) like The Very Hungry Caterpillar in this fun costume.
Made up of an incredibly durable and hard-wearing plush velour polyester, as well as a fully lined interior, this costume is more than up to the rough and tumble challenge that your child has to throw at it.
One size fits all, but best suited to children aged 3 to 7.
The outfit package includes the classic purple jacket, trousers, wig, beard, paint pot and brush, so they have everything they need to look exactly like one half of Roald Dahl’s famous couple the Twits, from the book of the same name.
This is such a brilliant costume, and with so many different elements, that your little one’s classmates may even be unsure who is behind the big bushy beard when they turn up at school.
Available for ages 7 to 12, with prices ranging between £17.62 and £20.96 depending on size chosen.
Violet Beauregarde is one of the five children who enter Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory in the much loved Roald Dahl book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
We all know that Violet ends up in a rather sticky situation when she chews a gum that hasn’t get been properly tested - and ended up ballooning in to a giant blueberry.
Kids will love this instantly recognisable humourous costume, which is suitable for children of all ages.
It features high quality details throughout and is completed with Velcro release tabs and a green leaf detail.
One size fits all.
This classic Spiderman costume is another one that requires no explanation as everyone knows who superhero Spiderman is.
Spiderman is, of course, one of the most iconic heroes ever created for a Marvel superhero, and children will love dressing up as him and unleashing their own powers.
The best thing about this costume, of course, is that your little one will want to wear this for many more days then just World Book Day.
Available in sizes S, M and L.
It’s never too early to get children involved in books, and even if they aren’t old enough to read themselves you can still get them involved in World Book Day and read too them - and dress them up.
Elmer the elephant is a beautiful book series by the British author David McKee, and you can quickly transform your little one in to the super sweet titular character with this cute romper suit.
It’s bold and bright, with a hood featuring elephant ears.
Available in sizes 3 months to 3 years, with prices ranging between £15.12 and £18.99 depending on size chosen.