My son, Leo, was insistent that he didn’t want to wear a costume for World Book Day last year.

In year two at the time, he felt self-conscious and hated the attention that a costume brings.

While I initially tried to coax him round to the idea, I didn’t force the issue. Secretly, I was more than happy to avoid the stress.

But as the day crept closer, the pressure from his friends started to build. Everyone was excitedly talking about what they were dressing up as, and suddenly – three days out from the main event – he didn’t want to feel the odd one out.

Cue a frantic online order for a costume, which ended up being Where’s Wally, as there was very limited choice left within the £20 budget I set. Thankfully, the stripey hat, t-shirt and round glasses arrived just in time – the day before.

As he walked through the school gates, his hand tightly gripped in mine, admittedly, there was little flicker of pride that he was joining in. But beneath that, there was a nagging frustration that the day was supposed to be about books, not how well he fitted in because he was wearing a costume.

The whole ordeal left me wondering; when did World Book Day become more about the costume and fitting in, than celebrating books?

Created in 1995, World Book Day aimed to promote a love of reading in children. While costumes have consistently featured, they’re undoubtedly now the main focus.

I think the rise of social media has certainly played a part in costumes taking centre stage. The day has turned into a competitive costume parade, filling people’s feeds with parents who have created Pinterest-worthy outfits to share for likes.

Crafting just isn’t a skill that I possess, so when I see parents proudly posting their kids’ elaborate outfits, when I have struggled with a barely-held-together creation or taken the easy route and bought one ready-made, for the briefest of moments, I’ll admit, I do feel inadequate and wish that I’d paid better attention in textiles.

On top of that, walk into any supermarket and you’ll see the commercialisation of the day. There are whole sections selling pre-packaged costumes, carefully marketed as making parents’ lives easier.

I get it. No parent wants to feel their child is being judged on their own lack of skills with a needle, thread, and glue gun.

I, myself, have succumbed to ready-made costumes some years. After all, we are all busy and even if you have the skills, DIY costumes can take time or money that many of us don’t have.

Over the last eight or so years, I have put together costumes for Slinky Malinki – which ended up with wonky ears and by the end of the day, one missing. I have bought a Golden Ticket costume for £20, which my daughter HATED wearing and ended up taking off once she got to school.

With Leo’s Where’s Wally outfit, the hat was itchy and too small – and once,my poor husband ended up in the Tesco Extra 12 miles away at 9pm the night before, trying to find a red headband for my daughter’s costume after she misplaced the one we already had!

In recent years, I have noticed that what should be an inclusive, low-cost celebration of literature, has turned into an event that puts unnecessary pressure on parents.

A survey in 2022 found that 81% of parents admit to feeling pressure to deliver a good costume, while a fifth of us parents find it more overwhelming than getting our children ready for the first day of school.

Children – like my son Leo – feel the expectations too, detracting from the joy of reading. When World Book Day has become just another date in the parenting calendar to stress over, something has gone wrong.

At a time where there is a decline in children reading for pleasure, we need World Book Day more than ever to help nurture our children’s love of books. The National Literacy Trust revealed recently that just one in three young people aged eight to 18 now enjoy reading in their free time, while only one in five read something every day – the latter is the lowest level they’ve recorded since 2005.

Smartphones and social media are undoubtedly a huge part of the issue. But if we are stifling younger children’s interest in literature because we are putting the focus on costumes rather than characters, it is little wonder that – as children get older – they will opt for screens and scrolling to pacify themselves.

At the end of the day, I believe that we are not helping to create good reading habits. If we really want to inspire children to love books and reading, we need to rethink how World Book Day is celebrated, without costumes taking centre stage.

Many schools do now relax the option of dressing up, but there are still many who award prizes to the best dressed. This can make children who don’t partake feel left out.

Schools already spend the day with planned activities, but I think parents need to stop feeling under pressure or in competition with each other to create perfect costumes, but I also think dressing up should be a thing of the past. These days, it is an added thing to parents’ already long to-do lists and instead, I think the money and time would be better spent on buying your child a new book and reading it with them.

For World Book Day this year (Thursday, March 6) Leo is not overly bothered about dressing up again so it will likely be a last-minute decision.

If so, it’ll be in his PJs, as one of The Midnight Gang characters by David Walliams. It’s a very low-cost, simple costume that he will feel comfortable in.

But if he wanted to completely drop the costume altogether and just pick up a book instead, that sounds like a much better idea to me.