World Book Day 2006

World Book Day 2006 will take place on Thursday 2 March, and the emphasis this year is on 'celebration'.

World Book Day is the biggest annual event supporting books and reading in the UK and Ireland, with events, activities and parties being held in schools, libraries, bookshops and other venues. As well as these planned events, pre-schools and secondary schools can register to receive schools packs and World Book Day £1 tokens - UK primary schools and all Irish schools will continue to receive these automatically, as in previous years.

Six special World Book Day £1 books are being published, which the £1 book token can be used for.

The token can also be used against any book or audio book at participating bookshops and book clubs. The schools packs contain: information on how to get involved in World Book Day ideas and activities display material details of events which are being organised across the country

World Book Day was marked in over 30 countries around the globe last year, and the main aim is to encourage children to discover the enjoyment of books and reading by providing them with a book of their own.

World Book Day 2006 also sees the start of a major new initiative - Quick Reads. 12 of the biggest names in fiction and non-fiction will publish short, fast-paced books designed to encourage reluctant readers.

Twelve more Quick Reads will be published in May. More information on this can be found on the World Book Day website.

A new campaign to introduce a good read to friends and family was launched on World Book Day 2005. Millions of free postcards were available throughout the country so that people could send them with a free book recommendation.  The campaign was so successful that a brand new set of four postcards has been produced for World Book Day 2006. These will be available from mid-February in libraries, bookshops, newspapers, bars, cafes, health clubs, heritage sites and magazines.

For more information on World Book Day, to register for a schools pack and to find out about the activities planned for your area, please visit the World Book Day website.

The Gaelic imprint, Ùr-Sgeul, has just launched the first phase of its newly redesigned website. The launch coincides with the first-ever publication of Iain Crichton-Smith's The Missionary in Gaelic which will be published on World Book Day. Don't forget to check out our new Gaelic Book of the Month.