Thursday 4 March is World Book Day in the UK. Celebrated in over 100 countries, it’s the creation of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) with its inspiration the Catalonian tradition of giving roses and books to loved ones on St George’s Day, 23 April.

Because World Book Day is so well established as an activity in schools in the UK, here and in Ireland it’s marked during term-time, although elsewhere World Book Day is held on 23 April.

One of the main aims of the day is to encourage children to read and pupils throughout the country receive a £1 World Book Day book token from National Book Tokens. These can be used to buy one of the six books published especially for book day, or can be redeemed against any book or audio-book from a participating book stockist – in Hedge End this is Sainsbury’s.

The books begin age-wise with a ‘Thomas & Friends: Thomas to the Rescue’ picture book, and go up to a double flip-book for age 11+, ‘Medusa Project: The Thief by Sophie McKenzie’ and ‘Walking the Walls’, by Chris Higgins. For a list of all the titles available see the World Book Day website.

Events have been organised throughout the country to celebrate the day, with the nearest to Hedge End taking place at Central Library, Civic Centre, Commercial Road, Southampton, SO14 7LW, at 6.30 on Thursday 4 March. Bestselling author, Roma Tearne who fled Sri Lanka as a 10-year-old in 1964 will be talking about her life and books – see Hedgeendpeople story,  ‘Celebrate World Book Day with Bestselling Author, Roma Tearne at Central Library, Southampton’.

In Hedge End itself you can find inspiration for celebrating the day at the library – and if you think you’ve read all your favourite author’s books, the library can help with that too.

Hedge End Library now has for reference a copy of ‘Who Else Writes Like – A Readers’ Guide to Fiction Authors’, in which you can look up your favourite author and discover the names of others who write in a similar genre and style.  For example, if you’ve exhausted Bernard Cornwell’s titles, you might try books by Simon Scarrow or Robyn Young. This is also particularly useful if you’re sourcing books for other people.

In addition the library also has reference copies of Hampshire County Council’s booklet, ‘Fiction Guide – An aid for choosing novels for yourself and others’. This also lists ‘alternative’ authors and gives advice on who to read by genre – from aga-saga to sci-fi.

If you’re new to the library the booklet also has a list of the 50 most popular (borrowed) fiction authors, and of the top twenty classic authors borrowed – including children’s authors.

Interestingly William Shakespeare comes in at number 10, eight places behind Enid Blyton!

World Book Day is a charity.