Add a sprinkle of author magic to your World Book Day® celebrations with one of the many online author events available during World Book Day Week. From picture books to myths and manga, there is an event to cater for a wide range of reading interests with plenty of opportunities for young writers to pick up some top tips to help them create their own magical tales.

Monday 3rd March

• British Library: Sign up for Global Tales of Nature – How Things Came to Be, an interactive workshop exploring how people from ancient cultures used storytelling to explain the mystery of the world around them. Michael Rosen, Sandra Agard, Emily Hanna-Grazebrook and Allen Fatimaharan will be telling origin tales from around the world, providing creative storytelling prompts and sharing illustration tips to inspire children to create their own nature-inspired traditional tales. Submit photos of pupils’ mini books for the chance to win book tokens and a personal response from Michael Rosen.
  • Free with registration
  • Suitable for ages 6-11
• Authors Aloud UK: Join former primary teacher and award-winning poet Matt Goodfellow as he talks about his hugely successful verse novel The Final Year and its much anticipated sequel The First Year in this high-energy, interactive workshop guaranteed to inspire young writers everywhere.
  • £150 per school (multiple classes can attend but should register individually).
  • Suitable for ages 9-14.
• Authors Aloud UK: Author, actor and musician Annemarie Anang leads an online session that combines music, movement and storytelling fun based on her heartwarming picture books I am Nefertiti and Dance Just Like So.
  • £150 per school (multiple classes can attend but should register individually).
  • Suitable for ages 4-7.
• Mr Dilly Meets: Explore the wonders of wildlife and the importance of conservation with award-winning authors Jasbinder Bilan, Nicola Baker and Maria de Jong.  Includes a live Q&A and wildlife videos.
  • Free with registration
  • Suitable for ages 7-11.
• Scholastic Schools Live: Join Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, the UK’s premier picture book creative duo, for an online session of storytelling and live drawing based on their best-selling picture book Tiddler – The Storytelling Fish.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 3+.
• Scholastic Schools Live: Author/illustrator David O’Connell introduces Dash and Dribble, the minibeast heroes of his brand-new young fiction series Beastie Bros in this online session complete with insect quiz and live draw-along.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 5-8.
• Scholastic Schools Live: Award-winning author Patrice Lawrence shares her own love of stories and introduces her first middle-grade novel People Like Stars. A Children’s Book of the Week for The Times, this page-turning mystery explores family secrets and the power of friendship as three strangers find themselves connected by one event years ago.
  • Free with registration
  • Suitable for ages 9-14.

Tuesday 4th March

• Authors Live: Join acclaimed fantasy writer Struan Murray for a creative writing workshop exploring different ways of getting into story creation. Learn about Struan’s own creative process and enjoy an exclusive reading from the first title in his upcoming series Dragonborn.
  • Free with registration
  • Suitable for ages 7-12
• Scholastic Schools Live: Swapna Haddow and Aditi Kakade Beaufrand lead a fun-filled story time and draw-along based on their picture book The Night Before Holi, a bright and bold twist on the traditional ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas poem.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 3+.
• Scholastic Schools Live: Join Michelle Robinson and Tom Knight for a rhyming story time and draw-along based on their laugh-out-loud picture book When Fish Finger Froze.
  • Free with registration
  • Suitable for ages 3+.

Wednesday 5th March

• Scholastic Schools Live: Lucy Edwards, blind activist presenter, introduces her new book Ella Jones vs the Sun Stealer, an exciting new adventure story that sees blind heroine Ella take on a pagan deity who has plunged the whole world into darkness. Meet Lucy’s guide dog Miss Molly, find out about braille and other tools blind people use and ask your own questions.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 9-12.
• Scholastic Schools Live: Celebrate the changing seasons and discover lots of fun facts about nocturnal animals in this online story time and draw-along with Alice Hemming and Nicola Slater, creators of the hilarious picture book The Sun Thief.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 3+.
• Scholastic Schools Live: Explore the power of visual storytelling and get top tips on how to develop your own manga-inspired books with author Samuel Sattin and artist team Gurihiru as they introduce Unico: Awakening, a reimagining of Osamu Tezuka’s manga classic.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 8-12.

Thursday 6th March

• World Book Day®/BBC Teach: Share a story and help defeat the Anti-Word League and their evil plan to steal all the words from our books in this year’s World Book Day Live Lesson with special guests Rob Biddulph, Malorie Blackman and Cressida Cowell.
  • Free.
  • Suitable for ages 7-11.
  • Teaching materials available.
• World Book Day®/National Literacy Trust: Are you ready for the Footy & Booky Quiz 2025? Join in the fun of this online, interactive quiz featuring two rounds of football and book-themed questions. The quiz is hosted by author Kit Brown with contributions from footballing heroes and writers and there are free supporting resources available to download from the Premier League website.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 8-12.
• The Children’s Bookshow: Does your class have a favourite Michael Rosen poem? Sign up for a World Book Day® poetry extravaganza as Michael performs your requests, talks about the joy of poetry and shares some of his top writing tips.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 7-11.
• Waterstones Virtual School Visit: Join Philippa Gregory and Katherine Woodfine for an inspiring discussion about the lives of ordinary women making history over the last 900 years. Normal Women – Making History for 900 Years has been specially adapted for teen readers from Philippa Gregory’s critically-acclaimed adult best-seller.
  • Free
  • Suitable for ages 11-14.
• Scholastic Schools Live: Frank is a full stop. He is round and small and things quietly stop when he’s around. Join author Laura Baker to discover what happens when Frank decides to stop acting as a full stop as she reads her new picture book The Full Stop that Got Away – a perfect introduction to the importance of punctuation.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 3+.
• Scholastic Schools Live: Get ready for some money-making mayhem as best-selling author Pamela Butchart introduces Diary of a Future Billionaire, the first title in her brand-new middle grade series.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 8-12.
• Scholastic Schools Live: Join author-illustrator, brother-sister duo Stephen and Anita Mangan as they celebrate their World Book Day® title The Fart that Broke World Book Day with games, jokes, drawing and storytelling.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 9+.

Friday 7th March

• Waterstones Virtual School Visit: Award-winning teacher and proud World Book Day® ambassador MC Grammar introduces his laugh-out-loud debut children’s book The Adventures of a Rap Kid in an epic online event packed with jokes, bangin’ tunes and rhymes.
  • Free with registration
  • Suitable for ages 7-11
• Scholastic Schools Live: Discover dragons, giants and three-headed monsters as award-winning author/illustrator Thiago de Moraes introduces his latest guide to the world’s myths and legends.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 6+.
• Scholastic Schools Live: Round off World Book Day® Week with a fun-filled draw-along with bestselling author and comics creator Jim Smith as he introduces his latest book My Big Fat Smelly Poo Diary: Tight Squeeze.
  • Free with registration.
  • Suitable for ages 7+.

If none of the scheduled events are what you are looking for, don’t forget that Authors Live and ReadingZone Live have libraries of recorded events and author interviews that you can access for free. And there are more resources to help you celebrate books and reading on the World Book Day entry on our Literacy Year calendar.

Happy World Book Day 2025!