Book Week: More Than Just a Dress-Up Day

When Book Week comes around, the hallways fill with superheroes, wizards, animals, and adventurers. The costumes are fun, but here’s the secret: Book Week is about so much more than dressing up. 

If you’re wondering why Book Week is about more than just dressing up in funny costumes, read what our PYP Coordinator has to say:

What is Book Week?

At its heart, Book Week is a chance for children to celebrate language, stories and the joy of reading. It’s a special time to pause and remember that books aren’t just schoolwork; they’re gateways into new worlds and exciting adventures. 

How is Book Week different from any other week?

What makes Book Week even more powerful is the way it encourages children to see reading from different angles. Stories can be read aloud, acted out, illustrated, or shared with friends. Suddenly, reading isn’t something you do quietly on your own; it becomes creative, interactive, and full of energy.

What skills are students developing?

By engaging with books, not just during Book Week, we can help nurture literacy, empathy, and critical thinking skills. Stories spark conversations that extend learning well beyond the event itself.

What activities are taking place in book week?

For our book week, we have cross classroom activities, with German, Performing Arts and buddies all coming together to celebrate reading. We also held a book fair for the students to buy new books and an author visit to meet a real life author who shared their own book. On Friday we have a dress up day so that students can share their favourite book characters in real life!

How can parents continue to support reading at home?

Research shows that children whose parents read to them daily have been exposed to at least 290,000 more words by the time they start school, according to the Child Mind Institute. When parents join in the excitement of Book Week, they model the importance of reading. Discussing books, attending events, or even sharing your own childhood favourites shows children that reading is valuable beyond the classroom.

Here are what our students had to say: 

“Two people came to read us a book. One was about a detective dog, and then someone read their own book! It was cute, it was about a little fish who wanted to go see the sun!”

“We thought about what it would be like to have a world of books. We are making a picture to show what it would be like”. 

“We had the chance to read so many different books and we even had an author come to see her and read her book”. 

“It’s a time where you can expand your knowledge and discover new things”. 

“It’s exciting because you get to meet new authors and find out about their books”.