Jacqueline Wilson, Julia Donaldson and David Walliams are among the authors writing new stories to mark the 20th World Book Day in the UK in 2017, with Wilson promising that “no matter how much a child might say they hate reading, there’ll be a book somewhere that they’ll love”.

The annual celebration of reading was launched in the UK in 1997 in response to declining reading and writing standards among children. A similar tradition has run for more than 90 years in Catalonia, and in 1995, it was designated an international event by Unesco.

Each year, a selection of £1 books are offered to young readers across the UK, with 13m given away over the last 19 years. After 789,738 £1 books were delivered for World Book Day this year, the charity hopes to increase the number to 1m to mark its 20th anniversary on 2 March 2017. Children can get the books for free in exchange for the book token available to all schoolchildren.

“In 1997 the level of children’s engagement with reading was at a point of national crisis,” said World Book Day UK founder Gail Rebuck, who is also UK chair of Penguin Random House. “The previous year a government report had been released showing that 42% of 11-year-olds failed to achieve level 4 in reading and writing on entry to secondary school. We wanted to do something to reposition reading and our message is the same today as it was then – that reading is fun, relevant, accessible, exciting and has the power to transform lives. I’ve seen first-hand how World Book Day has affected social change and long may it continue.”

“It’s a chance for every child, even if they don’t know the joys of bookshops and if reading isn’t their bag, to go into a shop and get a free book,” said Wilson, whose World Book Day title Butterfly Beach will continue the adventures of best friends Selma and Tina from The Butterfly Club.

“Anything celebrating reading is a wonderful thing. As a child I adored reading and it’s still my greatest pleasure. I feel I’m on a mission to spread the word … I am firmly convinced that no matter how much a child might say they hate reading, there’ll be a book somewhere that they’ll love.”

Comedian and children’s author David Walliams, pictured with his popular book Gangsta Granny. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

With the event seeing children dress up as their favourite characters in schools across the UK and authors appear at events around the country, Wilson said that World Book Day “helps children to see that authors are real people – they can chat about their books, and see that authors can get stuck, that some aren’t great at spelling – thank goodness for spellchecks on computers. It shows children that writing is not a strange, removed process, but something that everyone can do”.

Along with Wilson, next year former children’s laureate Donaldson and illustrator Lydia Monks will be contributing a new Princess Mirror-Belle title to the World Book Day lineup, with a new story also due from comedian Walliams. The selection covers readers from pre-schoolers to young adults, with the 10 titles also featuring a collection of stories from Enid Blyton, a Peppa Pig book, and writing from Francesca Simon and David Almond.

“My story is told from the point of view of the bad girl from The Butterfly Club,” said Wilson. “The difficult girl. It was rather fun to take over the personality of the big, scary one – I was the little, weedy one. And even though it’s a smaller story, you’ll find out exactly why the poor girl is so difficult.”

World Book Day UK director Kirsten Grant said that organisers “couldn’t be happier to have so many national treasures on board for our 20th anniversary – nobody can better capture children’s imaginations”.

“It’s about encouraging them to visit their local bookshop and empowering them to make their own choices about the kinds of books they want to read. What better way to do this than offering them stories from the best writing and illustrating talent being published in the UK and Ireland today?” said Grant.

The £1 World Book Day books for 2017 in full:

• Peppa Loves World Book Day (Ladybird)

• Everyone Loves Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)

• Where’s Wally? The Fantastic Journey by Martin Handford (Walker Books)

• Princess Mirror-Belle and Snow White by Julia Donaldson & Lydia Monks (Macmillan)

• Horrid Henry: Funny Fact Files by Francesca Simon (Orion Children’s Books)

• Good Old Timmy and Other Stories by Enid Blyton (Hodder Children’s Books)

• An as yet untitled book by David Walliams (HarperCollins)

• Butterfly Beach by Jacqueline Wilson (Corgi)

• Island by David Almond (Hodder Children’s Books)

• Dead of Night: A Front Lines Story by Michael Grant (Egmont)

And in Ireland only:



• Fast Forward by Judi Curtin (O’Brien Press)