Today World Book Day have announced the 13 books for children and teens that will be included in World Book Day 2019.
The range of £1 books created for 2019 will have something for everyone, from pre-schoolers to school leavers.
World Book Day is putting more books than ever into its campaign to provide every child and young person in the country with a book of their own. Catering for all age groups, from toddler to teen, the expanded list of 13 new £1 titles announced today for World Book Day 2019 was created to appeal to the widest possible range of children and young people, tastes and abilities, and features characters from all over the world.
The World Book Day 2019 titles are:
- The Hundred and One Dalmatians: Cruella and Cadpig by Peter Bently, illustrated by Steven Lenton (Farshore)
- Ten Little Bookworms by Mike Brownlow, illustrated by Simon Rickerty (Orchard)
- LEGO® Minifigure Mayhem by Helen Murray, Beth Davies & Paula Regan (DK)
- Claude: Best In Show by Alex T. Smith (Hodder)
- Hubert Horatio: A Very Fishy Tale by Lauren Child (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
- Bad Mermaids Meet The Witches by Sibéal Pounder, with illustrators Jason Cockcroft and Laura Ellen Anderson (Bloomsbury)
- Percy Jackson and the Singer of Apollo by Rick Riordan (Puffin)
- The Great Rocket Robbery by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, illustrated by Steven Lenton (Macmillan)
- Diary of Greg Heffley’s Best Friend by Jeff Kinney (Puffin)
- Everdark by Abi Elphinstone (Simon & Schuster)
- Snap by Patrice Lawrence (Hodder) Nought Forever by Malorie Blackman (Penguin)
- Sam Hannigan’s Rock Star Granny by Alan Nolan (The O’Brien Press)
The Hundred and One Dalmatians: Cruella and Cadpig
by Peter Bently, illustrated by Steven Lenton
Celebrate World Book Day 2019 by getting your paws on this wonderful new picture book, based on the much-loved characters from The Hundred and One Dalmatians. When Cadpig gets lost playing hide-and-seek, she stumbles into the path of evil Cruella de Vil… But can her new furry friends help her to escape? The Hundred and One Dalmatians: Cruella and Cadpig is a charming new story from Peter Bently and Steven Lenton, based on Dodie Smith’s iconic characters.
Peter Bently said: “Stories were one of the best parts of my childhood. My dad would tell me tales of a boy called Moberley, who once dug a tunnel to Australia, or read from my favourite books with pictures, like Rupert Bear or Winnie the Pooh (I liked bears). Nothing feeds a child’s imagination like sharing a story, and I’ll be delighted if Cruella and Cadpig helps more children to grow up with a love of reading.”
Steven Lenton said: “My parents read to me for at least ten minutes a night and this made me fall in love with stories and pictures. I’m so thrilled that our book will help to encourage children and families to read together – Cruella and Cadpig is the perfect ten minute tome! You might need an extra ten minutes to find all the ladybirds though…”
About World Book Day
The World Book Day 2019 campaign and 13 titles were unveiled at a Facebook Live event at The Bookseller’s HQ in central London this morning. A special animated video was also revealed and can be viewed on the World Book Day website.
World Book Day is the registered charity behind the world’s biggest annual celebration of children’s books. It is dedicated to celebrating the benefits of reading for pleasure for everyone, everywhere – promoting the magic of books, the power of imagination and the importance of sharing stories. Designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, World Book Day is marked in over 100 countries around the globe.
World Book Day 2019 takes place on 07 March 2019.
In 2018, for the second year running, over 1.08 book tokens were redeemed, with booksellers placing over 1 million £1 books into the hands of children and young people – despite the ‘Beast from the East’, which saw temperatures plummet to-15 in some areas of the country. World Book Day’s live event – ‘The Biggest Book Show on Earth’ – reached record numbers, with 700,000 signing up to the online event, while a further 4,500 braved the snow to join 37 authors and illustrators in person throughout the week. Through generous donations by UK publishers, 6,000 £1 books were made available in prisons in London, the North East and North West, for prisoners to share with visiting families.
For 2019, the charity will build on its established work with schools, libraries, prisons and the National Literacy Trust, and reach deep into the workplace, corporate and public sector life to galvanise an ever-wider constituency around the benefits of reading at an early age, and the importance of sharing stories. The National Literacy Trust’s 2017 survey found that nearly half (47.5%) of Key Stage 2 children don’t read with anyone at home, while children’s book publisher Farshore’s 2017 Print Matters More study revealed that parents reading to children is a major influence in children’s independent reading.
In response to the compelling evidence of the benefits of shared reading to a child’s future, World Book Day’s hugely successful ‘Share a Story’ campaign, now in its second year, is once again taking centre stage as the theme of World Book Day 2019. While continuing to offer children and young people all of the activities that are core to the annual event, World Book Day 2019 will include a call to action to parents and carers to Share a Story with children in their care by reading together for 10 minutes on World Book Day and every day.
Kirsten Grant, Director of World Book Day, said: “We know that sharing stories together, at home or school, in the library or in the park, on a bus or train – anywhere, anytime – for just 10 minutes a day has long-lasting positive effects on a child’s future and creates readers for life. This World Book Day, we’re asking publishers and booksellers to create these 10 minutes for their workforces, at any time during the day, so they can share a story with their own children. Could there be a stronger message to consumers on World Book Day than to see those who publish and sell stories to block out the time to share them? Leading by example, the industry can inspire the entire nation to follow suit, on World Book Day, and beyond.”
Find out more on the World Book Day website.
