Easy Book Week Costume Ideas

Check out these easy Book Week costume ideas for 2024 Children’s Book Week theme: “Reading is Magic!”

Book Week 2024 runs from 17 – 23 August. This year your children are asked to embrace the theme “Reading is Magic!”. This exciting invitation opens a world full of possibilities when it comes to kids Book Week theme ideas.

And why is reading magic? Regular reading dramatically improves vocabulary, which in turn improves memory function as well as the ability to generate thoughts, share ideas, and express opinions. Reading is also known to reduce stress and improve empathy – what better reason do you need to check out your local library!

Books are filled with magic

Let’s face it, children’s books are crammed with magical themes: fairy tale magic, the magic of Christmas, and simply the magic of pure imagination. Your child can choose just about any costume for this book week!

Book Week is a fantastic opportunity for your child to celebrate their favourite characters from their favourite books by dressing up. However, if you’re the sort of parent that cringes when you hear the phrase “Book Week” then you are going to love this article, which is all about easy book week costumes and kids book week ideas.

Reading is Magic! costume ideas – easy Book Week costume ideas

This theme is so open, we love it! A quick peruse of your child’s bookshelf is sure to “conjure” up an idea or two 😉.

Easy Book Week ideas for your costume for Book Week

There’s no need to raid your local craft store and stay up until the early hours of the morning creating your child’s Book Week dress up costume. In this guide we’ve also provided links to buy your kids book week costumes online. With the magic of books comes endless possibilities! These children’s Book Week costume ideas will help spark your imagination.

Delve into our CBCA Book Week 2024 costume inspiration, take a look at our suggestions for books for all age groups and costumes you can buy with a quick click, or make for yourself at home.

Families Tip: Enjoy the lead up to the August event with DIY costume crafts or reading through your children’s favourite stories for inspiration. Perhaps even encourage your children to participate in The Premier’s Reading Challenge.

Easy Book Week costumes for fairy tale fans

“Once upon a time…”.

Who can hear those words without remembering a story of magical kingdoms, talking animals, epic adventurous quests, and mythical elves, fairies, witches and wizards?

Grab your book of fairy tales (almost every bookshelf has one!) and flick through the pages for inspiration.

Get the books:

• Usborne Illustrated Book of Fairy Tales by Rosie Dickens.
• Usborne Illustrated Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Gillian Doherty
• Axel Scheffler Treasury of Fairy Tales by Axel Scheffler

Get the costume:

You might already have a fairy, princess, knight or animal dress-up costume – a win-win situation for time-poor parents – or you could tick the box with one of these fairy tale costumes available online…

• Medieval Knight costume – get it here.
• Pinocchio costume – get it here.
• Gingerbread Man costume – get it here.

Classical favourite’s Book Week costumes

You can’t go wrong with a book week costume from a classical favourite. Even if your child is not a keen reader, they’ll be familiar with the Disney versions of Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland.

Alice in Wonderland Book Week costumes

When Alice fell down a rabbit hole, she found herself in a world filled with magical creatures who led her on an wonder-filled adventure.

Get the book:

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Get the costumes:

With so many characters to choose from, there’s an incredible array of ready-made Alice in Wonderland costumes available online.

• Mad Hatter costume – get it here.
• Royal White Rabbit costume – get it here.
• Cheshire Cat costume – get it here.

Of course, as the titular character everyone recognises Alice, and it’s surprisingly easy to DIY your own Alice costume. This one was made with a plain blue t-shirt dress and an extra large white singlet pinned to the front like a pinafore. A broad white ribbon around the waist, long white socks, plimsolls, and a headband (plus a small bottle labelled “drink me”) completed the look. All these items came from Kmart and can be worn again any day.

Peter Pan Book Week costumes

Peter Pan lives on Neverland, a magical island with fairies, the Lost Boys, Captain Hook and clock-eating crocodile. He is joined on his magical adventures by real-world children, Wendy and her two brothers.

Get the book:

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Get the costumes:

• Disney Captain Hook costume – get it here.
• Tinkerbell costume – get it here.
• Classic Peter Pan costume – get it here.

Fantasy Book Week 2024 costumes

Independent readers can easily become lost in a fantasy fiction world of magic and make-believe. I often read the night away when I should have been sleeping on a school night – and I know I’m not alone in that! Try these costume ideas for avid readers of fantasy fiction.

Bilbo Baggins – The Hobbit

The Hobbit, part of The Lord of the Rings series, was originally written for an older audience but there are many beautifully illustrated and graphic-novel versions available now to tempt younger and advanced readers. If you have a fantasy loving child, take them to Middle Earth in this fabulous Bilbo Baggins book week costume with ring. You can even buy the giant feet for added authenticity!

Book inspiration: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein.

Click here to order your Bilbo Baggins costume.

Warrior Cats – Erin Hunter

This epic collection of books follows the lives of clans of wild cats and former pets as they forge a new life for themselves in the forest. The cats must form strong allegiances, battle nature and other clans, and ultimately work together to survive. This inspiring series illustrates the values of cooperation and adaptibility to grow as a new family.

We love this Book Week costume idea because a cat costume can be easily made from things you may already have in your child’s wardrobe. Match tracksuit pants with a t-shirt, fashion a tail by stuffing a stocking or long sock with other odd socks, stick felt or paper ears to a headband and apply a bit of facepaint, and voila! You have made your very own Warrior Cat costume!

If you prefer to buy a book week cat costume, check this one out:

Book inspiration: Warrior Cats by Erin Hunter.

Book Week costumes for children’s favourites

Is your child obsessed with a particular series? Children’s books are filled with stories of ordinary characters who find themselves living extraordinary lives. They’re popular for a reason – they inspire leadership, courage, friendship, and endurance to overcome challenges. We love these book series for kids!

A most magical wizard!

When it comes to book week ideas, Harry Potter is always a favourite. There are Book Week costume ideas for everyone within its pages!

Harry Potter is an orphaned wizard who faces a lot of adversary and challenge. His courage and strength of friendships are an inspiration to anyone who has read the books!

Have your child dress up as their favourite character from the book, whether that be Harry Potter himself or one of his friends, Hermione Granger or Ron Weasley. Your child will love imagining they are attending the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the day and learning how to control their magical powers.

If your child would rather be one of the Harry Potter magical creatures for Book Week 2024, check out this awesome Dobby the House Elf costume – he even has a sock!

Just note that Harry Potter is one of most popular book characters to dress up as, so don’t go for this if your child wants something unique.

Families Tip: We’ve also got an article on how to get an acceptance letter to Hogwarts if your child is nearly 11 years old!

Book Inspiration: Harry Potter by JK Rowling

Click here to order your Harry Potter costume.

Where the Wild Things Are

This beautiful timeless classic has been a favourite for over fifty years! Where the Wild Things Are is a heartwarming story of a little boy sent to bed without his supper, but his bedroom undergoes a mysterious transformation – you could say Max was drreaming with his eyes open! Max finds himself sailing to an island where the Wild Things live, but instead of being eaten, Max becomes their king.

Where the Wild Things Are has been adapted many times in television and cinema and has also been made into a live-theatre stage play.

Book inspiration: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Order your Max book week costume online here.

Magical creatures

Magical creatures are a regular theme in children’s fiction. If your child wants to dress up as a dragon, monster, unicorn, fairy, or witch etc., simply choose a costume they love and you’ll be sure to find a book to match to it!

Dragons!

Dragons are always popular in children’s books, especially once children are reading for themselves in upper primary. It might be tricky to create your own Book Week dragon costume, but there are lots available online to suit all age groups. This one would work particularly well for fans of the How to Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell and Eragon by Christopher Paolini for older readers.

A favourite in our house is Dragonology by Ernest Drake for serious fans of dragons!

Order your Max book week costume online here.

Monsters!

We love monsters, and they’re in books for all ages! From Sesame Street’s The Monster at the End of This Book, Sigel Adler’s “You’re Not My Monster” (a book to help children overcome fears), and “Eat Pete” by Michael Rex, these sometimes scary but ultimately friendly creatures bring fun and adventure into every life. The great thing about monster book week costumes is they can be as wild and zany as your imagination! Grab scraps of ‘hairy’ or bright fabric from the off-cuts bin at your local fabric store and pin them into a ragtag haphazard cloak to create the monster of your dreams, or check out these fabulous ready-made monster book week costumes available online.

For younger children, monsters are ideal toddler book week costumes – just see the number of monster board books available at your local library!

• Click here to order Purple and Orange book week monster costume.
• Click here to order Pink and Purple book week monster costume.

The magic of kindness and inclusivity

We can weave our own magic in the world by practicing kindness and inclusivity. Inspire your child to leave a trail of magic in their wake with these books and costume ideas.

A Dragon Shared is a wild ride for kids from toddler to grade 3, filled with action-packed illustrations and an important message about kindness, inclusivity, and friendship.

With a diverse cast of characters, it’s a must-have for your child’s bookshelf and school library! The story of Aaron and the mysterious knight will have kids laughing, cheering, and learning valuable lessons about treating others with kindness. So come on, grab your armour, and let’s find a dragon!

Find a range of cute dragon costumes here.

And knight costumes here.

The Tea Dragon Society

“This book is wonderfully inclusive, and depicts a distinct and expressive cast of LGBTQIA characters and people of color.” — School Library Journal

In the bewitching Tea Dragon Society series, two-time Eisner Award-winning creator K. O’Neill offers three stories featuring the enchanting world of Tea Dragons. This charming and peaceful trilogy is heartwarming, inclusive, and absolutely magical.

These books are graphic novels, and the characters wear everyday clothes! Recreate a character from an image by matching the pants and top, or choose a cute dragon costume from the link above.

The past returns in When You Trap a Tiger

Would you make a deal with a magical tiger? This uplifting story brings Korean folklore to life as a girl goes on a quest to unlock the power of stories and save her grandmother.

When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her halmoni’s Korean folktales arrives, prompting Lily to unravel a secret family history.

Book inspiration: When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

Order your tiger costume online here.

How reading magically inspires

The real magic of reading is that it inspires so many possibilities. Has your child ever read a book that magically changed the way they viewed the world and their potential in it?

Book Week astronaut costume

SPACE! It’s infinite – and filled with the magic of things we don’t understand. Imagine being an astronaut, floating around in a space ship and looking through your windows at all the tiny worlds far away. This NASA astronaut costume is the perfect accompaniment to these books for young children aged 4-8 years:

I Want to be an Astronaut by Denny Phillips, and the truly inspirational story of the first woman of colour in space, Mae Jemison (Little People, Big Dreams) by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara

If your child loves space, check out our Kids Guide to the International Space Station.

Voyage with the Vikings

Travel back in time, around 1000 years, to the world of the Vikings. 

Imagine trying on a costume in a magical shop, and suddenly finding you have a mystery to solve – a mystery that takes you back in time! That’s what happens to Beth and Patrick when they visit the Imagination Station in Mr Whittaker’s shop. Voyage with the Vikings is the first of many adventures for Beth and Patrick. Before you embark on your adventure, you’ll need your own Viking costume!

Fun Book Week costumes for little kids

Kids love to dress up in fun brightly-coloured costumes. For little kids, Book Week is all about exploring books and their unlimited imaginations. You can fit the theme Reading is Magic! to almost any story for young readers – after all the aim is to inspire a love of reading, and reading truly is magic!

Keep your child happy with a costume they can wear again and again.

Dinosaurs

In the realm of countless fiction and non-fiction books, dinosaurs capture the imagination of children everywhere. It makes sense that dinosaurs are a popular choice when it comes to some of the best book week costumes.

Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in the prehistoric era amongst the dinosaurs? This book week you can find out! Grab your best dinosaur outfit (we love, love, LOVE this one here) or skip brushing your hair to be the perfect caveman.

Book inspiration: How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague

Click here to order your dinosaur book week costume

Under the Sea

Does your child dream of exploring the ocean? Mermaids, legends of sunken treasure, mythical monsters – could they all be in this magical unexplored world? If you’re looking for unusual book week costume inspiration you’re bound to find it there!

I remember making an under-the-sea themed costume for my son in prep. It was a costume that my son could easily take off and put on so that it wouldn’t get in the way of playing and eating, and it was so simple to make. My son went as a jellyfish!

Here’s what I did: I bought an old grey sheet from a charity shop and cut off a large section to wrap over my wide-brimmed sun hat, padding the gap between the sheet and brim with newspaper to give it that nice blobby jellyfish shape. I cut the rest of the sheet into long thin strips of unequal length and secured them to the underside of the brim with safety pins (it was last-minute – I didn’t have time to sew!). Then he simply wore the hat and let the strips dangle around him like jellyfish tentacles. Wearing his boardies and rashie underneath he was totally sun safe with a unique no-fuss DIY book week costume!

If you want your cute sea creature book week costume at the click of a button, try this “Bubbles” fish costume for younger children.

• Book inspiration: Splash and Bubbles by Jim Henson. Get your Bubbles costume here.
• Book inspiration (non-fiction): Citizens of the Sea by Nancy Knowlton and National Geographic

Dora the Explorer and Diego

With a taste for adventure, Dora leads the way with her friends.

Dora is a seven year old Latina girl who, with the help of her friends Backpack, Map and Boots the Monkey, goes on exciting adventures. During her adventures Dora is regularly faced with problems that she must solve as well as working out how best to deal with the infamous Swiper the Fox.

Dora the Explorer is great idea if you’re looking for cheap book week costumes or girls book week costumes as you could probably make it work with what your child already has in their wardrobe. All you need is a pink t-shirt, a pair of orange shorts, a purple backpack (or the actual backpack), pair of sneakers and yellow frilly socks. If you don’t have these items, there are some great Dora the Explorer book week costumes online.

Just like his cousin Dora, Diego loves to go on adventures with his friend Baby Jaguar to see who he can help today!

To make your own Diego costume, pair blue shorts with a light blue t-shirt, and add an overshirt with the sleeves removed. If you want to be more authentic with the badge and backpack, buy the complete Diego book week costume online.

Book Inspiration: Dora the Explorer

Click here to order your ready-made Dora the Explorer book week costume.

Book inspiration: Dora Helps Diego by Nickelodeon

Click here to buy your Go, Diego, Go! book week costume.

Other ideas to fit the 2024 Book Week theme

You can adapt almost any of your children’s favourite books to suit the “Reading is Magic!” 2024 Book Week theme, or even adapt a costume your child already has. Check out the costumes available in many local stores (Kmart, Big W etc.) – and pick up a book to match. It can be as easy as that to inspire a lifelong love of reading.

Left it too late? Here’s where to hire a costume near you! Click here

Book Week Ideas – timeless favourites

We hope these Children’s Book Week costume ideas will help you explore the “Reading is Magic!” theme this Book Week 2024, but here are a few more timeless favourites that you can adapt to fit almost any book week theme!

Anne of Green Gables

It’s a classic book series that’s found a new audience – Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery is the story of an inquisitive orphan girl adopted by a loving older couple in colonial America. In the first book of the series, her dream was for a dress with puffed sleeves; “Puffed sleeves are so fashionable now. It would give me such a thrill, Marilla, just to wear a dress with puffed sleeves.” Get your dress with puffed sleeves right here. 

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Batman by DC Comics

Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

Of course we don’t expect your little one just to wear their undies to school! Dress them in a skin coloured leggings or pants and skin colour top, then put a great big pair of white y-front underpants on top. Finish it off with a red cape. 

Check out these Book Week costume ideas from earlier years:

When it comes to dressing up for Book Week Families Magazine readers are the BEST…

Many children love getting dressed up for Book Week – we loved these costume ideas sent in by our Facebook followers.

Easy Book Week costume ideas for teachers

Check out these Book Week costume ideas for teachers that were sent in by some of our followers!

Tips for Reading With Children:

1. Talk with your child about the book they are reading. What is it about? Do they like it? What do they think will happen next?
2. Ensure your child can read and understand the vocabulary used in the books and that they are comprehending what they are reading. Reading should have meaning!
3. Talk about the pictures, particularly with younger and less able readers. Pictures help children to understand the words.
4. Ask your child to read some of the words from the book in isolation to ensure they are not memorising the sequence of the text.
5. As your child gets older or a more able reader, discuss the characters and the words and phrases used by the author.
6. When your child does not know a word, encourage them to make a sensible guess but do not let them struggle.
7. Encourage your child to sound out and word build phonetic words, by using letter sounds not letter names, e.g. ‘a’ as in pat. Help them to break down the longer words, e.g. im-por-tant. It is important that your child recognises all the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make.
8. If your child misreads a word, stop him or her and say the correct word – although if it is a word which makes no difference to the meaning (for example, ‘home’ instead of ‘house’) it is best to ignore it.
9. Try to develop your child’s expression and prediction skills, especially when they have become a fluent reader – draw their attention to punctuation, e.g. stopping at full stops and the use of expression when characters are speaking.
10. Use lots of praise and encouragement and avoid criticism. It is important your child becomes confident with their reading.

Your child may experience a mixture of reading activities in school

• They should be given opportunities to read individually from reading scheme books.
• During shared/quiet reading sessions they may be encouraged to read silently or share with a partner a book of their choice.
• They may take part in group play and poetry reading sessions.

Finally

Finally and most importantly, so you can enjoy hearing your child read, make the reading sessions short. Give lots of praise – for effort as well as achievement. If you are anxious try not to let it show. Discuss any concerns you have about your child’s reading with their class teacher.

This article was featured in Issue 40 of our printed magazine, published June 2020.