World Book Day – Book Adventures

I love reading. World Book Day just heightens my love of reading

I don’t read a lot of books these days because I really just don’t have the time. I mean I do read, but not as much as I would love to, and not many actual books either.

In the era that I grew up in (‘the olden days’ according to my children), a vast amount of time was spent reading. Unlike kids nowadays, we didn’t have much of these electronic distractions, instead, we played outside with friends or we would read. There was no nonstop television viewing. In fact, after school, we had to wait for some time before the TV would ‘tune in’ so we could watch some. My mom would not allow us to just watch for hours on end anyway because the longer it stayed on, the higher the electricity bill would be!

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If it was raining, then you knew there was no chance of mom letting us outside, so we would just read. I used to love being under my bed, with a flashlight (torch) on whilst reading. The story would be even more enchanting if in the story it was raining whilst it was actually raining where we lived. My very vivid imagination and creativity are things I can attribute to my absolute love of reading as a child. There was no ‘dress-up’ day at school but at home, we could dress up in whatever we fancied that was available at home and we would write and perform plays and short skits.

My mom would often banish us to our rooms to read too if we bothered her too much. As I write, I can hear her voice in my head: ‘go tek up a book!’ For me though, that was no punishment. I would gladly oblige. In school holiday times we were very grateful to have the public library very near to where we lived, so on our almost daily trek to the library, we would read some books there and then borrow 3 which was the maximum then. At times, I would read the blurb for the book and it was so enthralling, I found it really hard to put the book down so I read it right there and then. Sometimes we would read those borrowed books at home on that same day and have to trek back to the library that same day to return them and then borrow more. We were well known to the librarians.

 

I am absolutely sure that that stood me in good stead to be excellent at English and Literature throughout school, to get the amazing GCSE grade I did and has also helped me to be the writer I am today. I have written a lot including songs and poems and my first published book is called LIVING LIFE WHILE SQUEEZING LEMONS which has a lot of my childhood penned there.

World Book Day and kids

Why do so many kids nowadays not like reading? Well, this could be due to a lot of factors and perhaps the biggest one is that they are so easily entertained (distracted) by all the gadgets around them, which is why I think we should try to get kids to love books and reading from an early age so that it grows with them. I also think we should limit the amount of time that they get to spend using gadgets. In the long run, I think reading would be more beneficial to them than playing with electronic devices.

Although I am not a great fan of commercializing everything, I am really happy that there is World Book Day and that at least emphasis is made on this day to encourage everyone to get into reading. I suppose dressing up helps the kids to ‘get into character’ and to be somewhat creative, even though I believe they could be more creative if they could think up and make their own costumes than to merely dress in the ones their parents went to great expense to get them.

If you have kids of your own, one way to get them into reading is to tell them about your own favourite books and why they are favourites. Talk about characters with them, the plot or storyline and why some characters are villains and some are heroes. Getting that conversation in every now and again will hopefully inspire them especially if you speak enthusiastically about your own reading adventures.

My friends celebrate World Book Day with me

Now I want to share with you some of my own favourite books that have inspired my love for reading and also those books loved by some of my friends.

A Year in San Fernando

 

 

My friend Michelle grew up in the Caribbean and now work in the States as a teacher. I called her up for a catch-up and to find out what some of her favourite books are when she was growing up.  I wasn’t surprised to find out that some of her favourite books are mine too. No wonder we share the same sense of humour. Some of her favourite books are:

 

 

Julie is a fellow blogger and writer who lives in the United States.  She has written several books and we highly recommend what we love to call the Sinful Series which are short reads. They are Kindle World Books available to US-based readers. They are part of the Miss Fortune Mysteries Kindle World.

Some of her books include:

 

 

 

My friend Dahlia lives in the States as well. She is a mother of 2 older children and she prefers to watch movies than to read a book. However, this is how she describes the book she always remembers when she thinks of her childhood: the book had a farmer called Mr Joe. He had a lot of farm animals like Miss Tibbs and a hen called Mother Hen. Surprisingly, I remember that book too! It was one that we used in my very first school and class! It brings back memories that date over 40 years. Surprising that we still have those memories and that the memories are so very pleasant. We would love it if you could recall the name of that book (if you are from that era, lol). The book was rather thin and I can’t remember if the pages were in colour or black and white. I have a feeling they were black and white (it’s the era, you see).

 

Tickle the funny bones on World Book Day

Some kids will love only certain genres of books, and if that is the case, then that is ok. Still, make an attempt to introduce other genres to them but try not to force. It is best if they have only one genre that interests them than none at all. To start off, I usually interest kids in books which entail humour. They like to have their funny bones tickled so start off with some of those.

I like David Walliams’ GANGSTA GRANNY. It is so funny and kids will love it! It just so happens that this year, as part of their World Book Day offering ASDA GEORGE have a range of lovely dress up outfit for kids and the GANGSTA GRANNY outfit is one of them.

Some kids might be interested in wizards and wizardry. HARRY POTTER books would be of interest to them. THIS OUTFIT is from one of the Harry Potter books. Do your little ones like to dress up in book character costumes?

Whatever you do, don’t turn them away from reading. give a nudge, but don’t nudge too hard. Inspire them with tales that can help them to get creative. In my own household, we often make up stories where each person is allowed to give one sentence of the story at a time. It is very relaxing and allows us to share quality time with each other and build vocabulary, structuring and confidence. So this World Book Day, I encourage you to have a blast getting into reading.

 

Religious books I would recommend for World Book Day

If reading this doesn’t change you, maybe nothing else will.

This illustrated version is a good read

This has a full biography of the world-renowned author Ellen G White

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I got a book as a Christmas gift and when the giver recently asked me where the book was, I told her I had given it to someone else after reading it. I was shocked as she became quite upset that I had given away the gift. I always like to swap books and even donate them to charity shops. I just feel like it’s the best thing to do, especially if one doesn’t have enough storage spaces. What do you do with books once you have already read them? Hope I’m not alone here.

 

What was your favourite book as a child? How do you feel thinking about that now? Hopefully, this World Book Day you will be inspired to pick up your relationship with books and inspire the younger ones to do the same.

In the meantime, I’m off to go figure out how to make a book character using a vegetable to help my daughter with a school project. You never know, she might just be the winner and come up with other awesome, winning ideas. If you have any ideas, do send them my way.

 

Grammarly