If you are a parent with a child in primary school, you may today be panicking about World Book Day tomorrow. This is the occasion when many schools encourage kids to come in dressed as a literary character. My three are going as:
- Violet Baudelaire from the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events. This involves her wearing a purple dress and tying her hair with a purple ribbon. She is currently not keen on wearing the long black wig I bought because it isn’t quite as she imagined Violet’s hair looks (‘too long and curly’ apparently).
- Dr Who. Not very literary I’m afraid, but the Joker is obsessed and has been reading the annuals repeatedly. We obtained a second hand tweed jacket for him to accompany his sonic screwdriver and the bow tie he was given for Christmas.
- The Engineer’s outfit was trickier, involving the use of fun fur and a sewing machine. He is going as Mr Munroe from the Ottoline stories.
However, for those panicking this afternoon (as I usually do – this year is completely out of character for me), I give the following suggestions of easy outfits to cobble together before the morning, if your children are persuadable, as, alas, mine often aren’t.
- Roald Dahl characters. Charlie (from the Chocolate Factory) just needs a golden ticket and normal clothes. Or Mrs Twit involves a headscarf and walking stick. George could go in normal clothes with a bottle of medicine and James could take a picture of a peach. Matilda can just take a pile of books!
- Narnia children who could go in anything looking vaguely 1940s/50s eg shorts and knitted sweaters.
- Horrid Henry characters (sorry) – Moody Margaret or Henry himself, for example. They will need to wear a scowl.
- [Late edit] Captain Underpants. All you need is a cape (or piece of cloth) and undies worn over trousers. Would mainly appeal to 8 year old boys.
That’s a few off the top of my head. Any other top last minute outfit tips?
The Vicar's Wife 
Kerenza has LOADS of ideas at http://kerenzaallin-garner.blogspot.com/2012/02/world-book-day-ideas.html
I am going to be Pippi Longstocking. I have a denim dress which I’ll wear over a stripey t-shirt and stripey tights. Purple shoes. Might even plait my hair.
Although WBD is tomorrow, our school is doing the dressing up thing on Friday, which is good because daughter wants to go as Cleopatra (mainly due to Horrible Histories) and son wants to go as the Gruffalo. @Stellian treated herself to a new sewing machine to make the costumes so am looking forward to seeing the children in their outfits.
My son (now 21) never had any trouble at all. One pair of green leggings (mine), one green tunic with zig-zag hem, and one green felt hat with jaunty ribbon. Accessorise with pixie boots, bow and arrow or whatever. He alternated happily between Robin Hood and Peter Pan for about 8 years 🙂
Another Roald Dahl option: Danny champion of the world = normal clothes + bag of raisins.
We had a number of fake fur coats. Very useful for Narnia children.