World Book Day has announced its plans for 2018 – and we’re absolutely delighted that Pamela Butchart and Thomas Flintham, author and illustrator of the Izzy series, have been chosen to create a brand new story that will be published as one of ten £1 World Book Day books – The Baby Brother From Outer Space!
When Haroon’s mum brings his baby brother into school, Izzy and her friends are ALARMED! The baby is clearly using mind control because the office ladies start squeaking and saying made-up words. He writes strange messages with his blocks and he REALLY LIKES SCHOOL DINNERS! But it’s when he’s caught speaking in an alien language on his ‘phone’ that they know. Haroon’s baby brother is from outer space and he’s trying to BEAM THEM ALL UP!!!
World Book Day marks the world’s biggest celebration of reading, where the nation’s entire book industry comes together to work proactively to address falling literacy levels and create readers of the future. This year, over £650,000 was raised for charity by World Book Day and over 1.2 million £1 book tokens were redeemed, enabling 1 in 4 children (1 in 3 for those receiving free school meals) to purchase their first ever book.
To mark the launch of next year’s celebration, World Book Day are launching a brand new Twitter game today called #ShareAStoryIn10. From 10am this morning, 10 authors, illustrators and World Book Day ambassadors will come together to share a brand new story in 10 lines, each writing one line of the story and posting it to Twitter. Anybody following the hashtag, #ShareAStoryIn10, will see the story unfolding across the social media network. Once the story is finished, each of the 10 authors and ambassadors will encourage their followers to start their own 10 line stories, nominating a friend to continue the chain.
Here’s the list of £1 World Book Day books for 2018 in full:
- Oi Goat! by Kes Gray and Jim Field
- Mr Men: My Book About Me By Mr Silly written and illustrated by Adam Hargreaves, original concept by Roger Hargreaves
- The Baby Brother From Outer Space! by Pamela Butchart, illustrated by Thomas Flintham
- Paddington Turns Detective and Other Funny Stories by Michael Bond, illustrated by Peggy Fortnum
- Nadiya’s Bake Me a Story by Nadiya Hussain, illustrated by Clair Rossiter
- Terry’s Dumb Dot Story: A Treehouse Tale by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
- The Girl Who Thought She Was a Dog by Clare Balding, illustrated by Tony Ross
- Brain Freeze by Tom Fletcher, illustrated by Shane Devries
- The Bolds’ Great Adventure by Julian Clary, illustrated by David Roberts
- Marvel’s The Avengers: The Greatest Heroes by Alastair Dougall
World Book Day will be taking place on 1 March 2018 – you can find out more here.
Here’s the hashtag to follow for the #ShareAStoryIn10 game on Twitter.
Congratulations, Pamela and Thomas!
