€3.5m special tokens for bookworms
To celebrate the landmark for UNESCO’s book event, booksellers throughout Ireland and National Book Tokens are donating more than 3.5 million special World Book Day (WBD) tokens to pupils in primary schools all over the country. Over the past 10 years more than 30 million book tokens have been given to Irish children at a cost to Irish booksellers of an estimated €40 million.
World Book Day itself is on Thursday, March 1, but a month of promotion kicks off today and continues until March 25, in more than 100 countries around the globe.
The campaign aims to provide all children with the opportunity to receive a book and every primary school child under 12 years of age is eligible to receive one of the special WBD tokens.
Pre-schools and secondary schools must register to receive information packs while primary schools receive theirs automatically. Each child can then redeem their token against 11 specially-produced World Book Day books in bookstores nationwide. There are 11 titles for 10 different age groups from bestselling authors such as Julia Donaldson, Jeremy Strong and Anthony Horowitz.
World Book Day spokesman John McNamee said that over 95% of schools participated last year. “Studies show that reading and developing a love of books is instrumental in determining future success at school. It is crucial to give as many Irish children as possible the opportunity to nurture that love of reading and that is why booksellers are reaching into their own pockets to fund this initiative.”
