World Book Day has announced its list of 15 books for 2025. As usual the books will be made available for free with a £1/€1.50 book token on World Book Day itself, which for 2025 will be Thursday 6th March.
The line-up includes short stories from brands Bluey and Paddington Bear for beginning and early-reading abilities, as well as a search-and-find story from Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, and a selection of poems for every occasion from the 2022-2024 Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho. Other brands included in the list include the LEGO Group and Pokémon.
For more fluent and independent readers, Benjamin Dean’s stand-alone thriller This Story Is a Lie makes the list, alongside Tom Palmer’s The Soccer Diaries: Rocky Takes the Lead and The Wolf Trials by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, illustrated by Manuel Šumberac.
Cassie Chadderton, Chief Executive of World Book Day, said: “When children have the freedom to explore books on their own terms, many more will benefit from the well-being, educational and other benefits that reading for pleasure brings.”
In the Beginning category are:
The Magic Balloon by Carl Anka, illustrated by Amanda Quartey
Who’s in Acorn Wood? by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler
Barbara’s Very Useful Guide to Moods by Nadia Shireen
In the Early category are:
The Adventures of Paddington: Farm Escape!
Pokémon: The Epic Pocket Guide
All Poems Aloud by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett
Fox & Son Tailers by Paddy Donnelly
In the Fluent category are:
LEGO: Our Amazing Universe by Jennifer Swanson and Arwen Hubbard, illustrated by Simon Pickard
To The Soccer Diaries: Rocky Takes the Lead by Tom Palmer
The Fart that Broke World Book Day by Stephen Mangan, illustrated by Anita Mangan
The Wolf Trials by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, illustrated by Manuel Šumberac
In the Independent category are:
This Story Is a Lie by Benjamin Dean
Ireland is represented with Ag Buzzáil sa Ghairdín by Áine Ní Ghlinn
Wales is represented with Gwyrdd ein Byd by Duncan Brown, illustrated by Helen Flook
Watch the 2025 video
World Book Day is a wonderful thing and continues to deliver huge impact for our nation's children. Their vision is for more children, from all backgrounds, to develop a life-long habit of reading for pleasure, benefiting from the improved life chances this brings them.
Their 2024 research on children's motivation to read was stark: 1 in 5 kids feel judged for what they read. The message was clear: children will find reading fun if they can choose what, when and how they read.
Like LoveReading4Kids, World Book Day aims to empower children to have autonomy over their reading by choosing one of the 2 million £1/€1.50 books printed, and by giving them the freedom to discover reading on their own terms.
World Book Day improves children’s life chances, particularly those growing up in disadvantage and inequality, by encouraging reading for pleasure. This is critical as we know that reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income.
If we needed further evidence that World Book Day is a critical part of our society, take a look at these stats from the NLT Annual Literacy Survey 2024:
- 25% of pupils receiving Free School Meals said the £1 book they ‘bought’with their £1 token was the first book of their own.
- 91% of 5-8 year olds and 76% of 8-16 year olds took part in a World Book Day event.
- 35% of children make more time to read as a result of World Book Day.
- 39% of children find reading more fun.
- 95% of children have heard of World Book Day
Families, you will be able to use your World Book Day £1/€1.50 token to get one of these brilliant reads for free between 13th February and 23rd March 2025.
World Book Day send the tokens to schools and early years settings, as well as through certain magazines, McDonalds and certain community partnerships.
Children can swap their World Book Day £1/€1.50 token for any of the World Book Day £1/€1.50 books or get £1 off a full price title (€1.50 off in Ireland) any full price book or audiobook (as long as the book or audiobook costs at least £2.99 (or €3.99 in Ireland) at participating booksellers. Your local bookseller might be on a high street or could be a supermarket. Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco all stock the £1/€1.50 books. Unfortunately the World Book Day book tokens cannot be used for online purchases.
Bravo World Book Day. Keep up the great work.
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