World Book Day is a global event but its observance takes different forms. In most countries it celebrates literature, sometimes with a particular focus on an author of national significance. In the UK, it largely commemorates papier-maché and Amazon Prime. Although book tokens and events at libraries still take place, for many parents the largest part of the day has the least to do with books: making or buying fancy dress. 

There is no subject I have written about that has generated more correspondence, and more consensus, than World Book Day costumes. As one parent complained, part of the problem is that a large number of literary characters just wear clothes. (They theorised that this, more than anything else, is why Harry Potter will continue to remain an indispensable part of the literary canon: a couple of minutes with a marker pen, a pair of disused glasses and hey presto.) A colleague recently bumped into another parent who, the night before World Book Day, had been reduced to searching the local park for sticks for a costume. Others simply go for the costlier route of ordering an outfit online.

As anyone who has ever forced a smile in response to a homemade gift from a younger relative will know: unless the child is an artistic prodigy of some kind, a homework assignment that asks them to “make something” is, in fact, an assignment for their parents. (In practice, it is usually an assignment for their mothers.) World Book Day costumes are simply the highest profile example of this trend.