Book Week 2019
A Moveable Feast This year, the official World Book Day is Thursday 7 March 2019, although schools often move the date or add themes to fit in with their own timetables and curriculums, so it’s always worth checking out what’s happening in your local area.
Imaginations A WORLD OF
Over the past few years, World Book Day (or Book Week, as it is more commonly known) has catapulted children’s fancy dress to the forefront of the party industry. Here’s what’s new for the 2019 season.
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ith schools across the UK continuing to embrace the literary celebration that is World Book Day, fancy dress shops are able to capitalise on the event, which is now a key date in the calendar for the party industry. Last year’s celebrations were a boost for costume shops, despite the heavy snow which saw many regions delaying their celebrations until the weather was more suitable. While many parents continue to rely on supermarket or internet shopping to source their little darling’s costume, many others leave it far too late to do anything other than buy in person from the local party shop. As a key event in the dress-up calendar, all the major suppliers now offer their own, dedicated Book Week collections. Amscan offers a wide range of styles covering the main themes from historical to careers,
Joining In The Fun “Book Week is the most important time of the year for us for children’s costumes. Licensed costumes from popular film and book franchises always do well. Perennial favourites include Harry Potter, Where’s Wally and anything Roald Dahl. For younger children, classic fairy tale costumes are always popular. Mary Poppins has always been a popular choice for Book Week and following on from the recent film, we expect her to be even bigger this year. We are seeing an increasing number of teachers coming into our stores to purchase costumes as well. They want to be part of the fun and tend to choose similar costumes to the children.” Emma Angel, director, Angels Fancy Dress
fairy-tale and animals, with new lines for 2019 across all of these. “Our classic character styles such as Mad Hatters, classic Red Riding Hood and Alice are performing well, as are the licensed lines The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Elmer the Elephant, revealed Sam Taylor, Amscan’s dress-up category manager. “Our new range of Dr Suess costumes and accessories is already starting to trend, so we predict that will be big this year – especially everyone’s favourite, The Grinch!” A brand new World Book Day range from Bristol Novelty has already been very well received and the company is delighted with how popular the new range has proved with customers. “Since the new range arrived in stock we’ve seen a huge demand for the classic and creative variety of costumes,” said marketing manager Fran Hales, who strongly recommends putting in an order before the range is showcased at Spring Fair! “We love the World Book Day costumes,” he continued. “It’s been a real pleasure creating these as we had fun with the designs and the incredible imagery which has helped bring them to life. My favourite has to be the World War costumes, as a set they have real stand-out from other on the market right now.” Also boosting its World Book Day offering is Smiffys, which has recently added a number of new generic and licensed lines across its preschool and primary
Left: Amscan’s new range of Dr. Seuss costumes includes the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2 as well as the Grinch. Below left: The new Wind in the Willlows line from Smiffys is expected to be hugely popular for Book Week 2019.
portfolios. “From animals to pirates and princesses, we are continually developing our range of costumes and accessories to make sure there is something for everyone,” explained trade marketing manager Sharon Poulter. “And continuing our strong association with children’s literary licences, we are delighted to have been able to extend our range of officially licensed children’s costumes and accessory kits.” The new range of toddler costumes includes CBeebies favourite Bing, as well as Postman Pat and Where’s Wally, while other characters include favourites from Roald Dahl, Where’s Wally, Horrible Histories, Goosebumps, Peter Rabbit and David Walliams. Early reports coming through from Henbrandt show that sales of Book Week lines are continuing to rise for 2019, with costumes, hats and costume accessories continuing to sell well. “We are bringing in more costumes that appeal to this market,” said marketing manager George Morgan. “And an increasing number of classic books are being made into films and television series and this has definitely increased the popularity of those costumes and accessories.” One of the best things about World Book Day is that the number of smaller children’s dress-up occasions throughout the rest of the year means that stocking up is a relatively low-risk business for retailers. Keep turning the page! Below: Bristol Novelty has introduced a new line of Book Week styles for 2019.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 PROGRESSIVE PARTY EUROPE
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