World Book Day is a bit like childbirth says Nadia Cohen, whose son is pictured here in a hedehog costume with ‘genius’ spines made with wooden pegs As schools across Britain open their gates to an army of excitable Hermiones and Harrys this morning, listen for the collective sigh of relief as parents rejoice that World Book Day is over for another year. It should be a celebration of reading, but just hearing those three little words is enough to make most of us break out in a cold sweat.
Cue weekends covered in glue and paint, panic-buying googly eyes and dealing with mini meltdowns as your child’s potato Paddington does not even vaguely resemble reality. My children left primary school a couple of years ago, so I foolishly believed it was all behind me, but WBD is the monster that will not die. The boys subsequently announced that one wanted to be Gandalf and the other wanted me to conjure up an Oompa Loompa outfit.