World Book Day Costume Ideas
By Faber Editor, 6 February 2026
Looking for a last minute World Book Day costume? To make life a little easier, we have put together a collection of brilliant costume ideas inspired by some of our favourite Faber characters.
World Book Day this year takes place on Thursday 6th March 2026, and we can’t wait for the world to join us in our passion for sharing amazing stories with children. Whether you’re a teacher or a parent, we know it can be overwhelming to come up with costume ideas for children, so we’ve put together a selection of easy ways to dress up inspired by some of our favourite characters. Absolutely no sewing necessary. We’ve tried to keep our costumes simple and to use items you might already have at home.
Celebrated for 24 years and across 100 different countries, World Book Day is a day devoted to giving each child and teen a book of their own. We celebrate authors, illustrators and sensational storytelling, bringing books to life through engaging workshops and fun resources.
We love seeing the creative costumes that bring our characters to life on this day. Have you and your family decided who you will be dressing up as this year? We’ve put together some great guides to help you transform into some of our favourite characters. Click on the characters below to add a little more detail to your costume – we’ve also created some free masks you can print and cut out to add to your costume!
Podkin One-Ear Costume
For fans of warrior rabbits, mystery and adventure, we’ve put together a quick and easy Podkin One-Ear costume. Fans of Kieran Larwood, Fernando Lopez Juarez and David Wyatt‘s Podkin can dress up as their favourite rabbit hero with our printable mask, completing the look with earthy colours, a cape and a lantern.
To create your own DIY costume . . .
You will need: Red fabric, scissors, some brown card, black face paint, safety pins, staples or hot glue and an old pillow case.
- Use your scissors to cut out one rabbit ear from your brown card.
- Tie the red fabric around the child’s head and estimate where you would like to place the brown paper ear.
- You can staple, hot glue or safety pin the ear to your red fabric to keep it in place. Make sure there’s an adult present to help!
- Using your black face paint, simply paint an upside down triangle shape on the child’s nose to create Podkin’s rabbit nose.
- If you’d like to create a cape for Podkin to dramatically swirl around as he hunts down the terrifying Gorm, simply safety pin the pillowcase to the shoulders of the child’s top.
Dave Pigeon Costume
For fans of the brilliantly funny series by Swapna Haddow and Sheena Dempsey. Dress up like Dave with our handy printable mask and complete the look by putting your arm in a sling!
Here’s a speedy DIY costume that you and your child could make together, featuring everyone’s favourite adventurous avian, Dave Pigeon.
You will need: An old grey hoodie, white paper/card, a black felt tip, a yellow felt tip and a hot glue gun, safety pins or staples.
- If you’re going to be a bona fide bird, you’ll need eyes and beak. Cut out two circles and a triangle from the white paper/card. Make sure there’s a grown-up present to assist younger children!
- Use your black felt tip to draw pupils in the centre of your two circles of card – these will be your eyes.
- Colour in the triangle yellow – this will be your beak.
- Attach the eyes on either side of the hood of the hoodie with some hot glue, safety pins or staples. An adult will need to help with this part – be careful!
- Next, attach the yellow triangle underneath the top centre of the hood for the beak. It should poke out over your forehead when you put the hood up.
- If you used a hot glue gun, leave your hoodie to dry.
If you’re feeling ambitious, you can create a cape of feathers!
You will need: an old pillow case, grey and white paper/card and a hot glue gun, safety pins or staples.
- Firstly, cut out lots of feather shapes from the grey and white paper/card.
- With the help of a grown-up, use hot glue, staples or safety pins to attach these to one side of the pillow case.
- Once finished, safety pin the top of the pillow case to the shoulders of your grey hoodie and the ends of the pillow case to the arms.
The Iron Man Costume
Use our mask template to create the look of Ted Hughes and Chris Mould‘s The Iron Man. Complete the look by wearing grey or even create an iron body out of cardboard boxes.
For fans of all things robots and sci-fi, create your own DIY Iron Man costume inspired by Ted Hughes’ classic children’s book.
You will need: Two cardboard boxes, one slightly bigger than the child’s head and one slightly bigger than the child’s torso. You will also need foil and a pair of scissors.
Only adults or older children should cut the boxes as this can be tricky, however little ones can definitely get involved with the foil wrapping!
- First, turn the smaller cardboard box upside down. The bottom of the box will become the top of the Iron Man’s head. With the help of a grown-up, cut off or tuck in any extra flaps around the Iron Man’s ‘neck’ on the open side of the box.
- Cut out a straight mouth and circular eyes from the smaller cardboard box to make the Iron Man’s eyes and mouth.
- Now, turn the larger cardboard box upside down. You’re going to put it on like a t-shirt to make the Iron Man’s body. Cut out a hole big enough for the child to comfortably fit their head through to make a neck hole.
- Next, cut two arm holes on either side of the larger box. You might need to try your boxes on for size!
- Then grab your foil and wrap it around the boxes, making sure to wrap the foil around all the holes that make up the arms, neck, eyes and mouth of our costume. You’re done!
There’s a Tiger on the Train
The perfect book for any tiger or train fans, inspired by There’s a Tiger on the Train by Mariesa Dulak and illustrated by Rebecca Cobb.
Simply cut out and stick together our tiger headband template below for an easy tiger look.
Pair the headband with some orange and black clothes and if you’re feeling ambitious use some face paint to add some black and orange stripes to your face.
Meesh the Bad Demon
Michelle Lam’s Meesh the Bad Demon is a simple costume perfect for any young fantasy lovers. To transform into Meesh, try our DIY demon horns.
You will need: Scissors, purple card and a glue stick or stapler.
- Grab your purple card and draw your two demon horns, they can be whatever shape you’d like.
- Cut out the demon horns.
- Cut out a strip of purple card that is long enough to fit around the child’s head, if the strip isn’t long enough, glue or stick together two strips.
- Once you’ve found the length your strip needs to be, staple or glue the ends together to create a headband.
- Staple or glue your demon horns where you would like them to be on the headband.
- Add to your demon horns with a purple wig, purple skirt, white shirt and a brown rucksack for the finished look!
Peng and Spanners
Meet your new favourite superheroes, created by Steve Webb, a sarcastic penguin and a clever cat with a toolbelt. Whether you’d like to be Peng or Spanners, we’ve got the costume for you!
For Peng fans
You will need: Black, white and yellow card, scissors, glue and string.
- Draw a circle on the white card that is slightly bigger than the child’s face.
- Cut out the circle.
- Now draw two smaller white circles and cut them out, these will be the eyes.
- Grab the black card and cut a strip that is a cm wider than the height of the white circles and that is the length of the first big white circle.
- Now from the yellow card draw the shape of Peng’s beak and cut this out.
- Stick all your pieces together onto the first big white circle. First stick the black strip of card, then place the two eyes on to the black strip and then add the beak below the eyes.
- Cut out two holes in the eyes and one hole in the beak. This might be tricky so always get a grown-up to do this.
- Cut two small holes either side of the mask and loop and tie in the string.
- Add this Peng mask to some black and white clothes for the finished look!
For Spanners fans
You will need: Yellow, white and black card, orange colouring pencil, scissors, glue and string.
- Grab the yellow card and draw the shape of Spanner’s head a bit bigger than the child’s head.
- Add in Spanner’s stripes onto the yellow card with the orange colouring pencil.
- Cut out two white circles for the eyes.
- Cut out a rectangle shape from the black card that is slightly bigger than the height of the eyes and the length of the mask.
- Glue the black rectangle onto the yellow card and add on the eyes.
- Cut out two holes in the eyes, this might be tricky so ask a grown-up to do this.
- Draw on Spanner’s nose at the bottom of the mask.
- Cut two small holes either side of the mask and loop and tie in the string.
- Add this Spanner’s mask to some orange and yellow clothes and a fake screwdriver in hand for the finished look!
Squishy McFluff
Dress up as our favourite invisible cat, Pip Jones and Ella Okstad‘s Squishy McFluff! Use our mask as a template, dress all in white and walk around as silently as possible – you’re invisible after all!
If you have them around at home, you can also add in white cat ears and white face paint to create Squishy’s cheeky face.
You will need: White paper/card, scissors, a staple, a hot glue gun or safety pins and a white outfit.
- First, cut out a single strip of white paper long enough to fit comfortably around the child’s head. You may need to staple two strips together for older children.
- Staple the ends of the strips together so that it can comfortably fit around the child’s head without being too tight or too loose.
- Next, cut out two triangles and staple these at the front of the circular strip to make the ears.
- Add the cat ears to your white outfit and there you are! If you have extra time, you can even cut out a white tail from the paper and attach it with a safety pin to the child’s outfit.
Bad Panda
Swapna Haddow and Sheena Dempsey‘s Bad Panda, Lin, is the baddest, meanest, most un-cute animal in the zoo. If you’d like to channel her mischievous attitude, all you need is a black and white outfit, and if you have it, some black and white face paint.
You can also create your own DIY panda ears with some black and white card!
You will need: Black and white paper/card, scissors, staples or a glue stick, a white pom pom and a safety pin.
- First, cut out a single strip of white card long enough to fit around the child’s head, just like our cat ear headbands earlier in the article.
- Staple the ends of the strips together so that it can comfortably fit on the child’s head without being too tight or too loose.
- Cut out two semi circles from the black paper and staple these at the front of the circular strip to make Lin’s fluffy panda ears.
- Using a safety pin, attach a pom pom to the back of your trousers or skirt to make Lin’s tail.
Don’t have a pom pom? Try making one yourself!
You will need: a ball of white wool, cardboard and scissors.
- Make a template for your pom pom. Using a compass or a round object, draw two circles of the size you would like your pom pom to be. Get a grown-up to help!
- Use scissors to cut out your two cardboard circles.
- Now draw a smaller circle in the centre of each of your cardboard circles – it should be about a third of the size of your outer ring.
- Cut out the smaller circles – you can cut a slit in the centre of each circle to help.
- You should now have two identical cardboard discs. Put them together to make your pom pom template.
- Cut a long piece of wool and keep it to one side for step 9.
- Tie one end of your wool around your cardboard discs and start wrapping it around. Make as many loops as you can, until the wool is nice and dense. You don’t need to tie it off.
- When you’ve wrapped your template in wool, it’s time to cut along the outer edge – push the scissors between the two cardboard rings to help guide you. Get a grown-up to help with the sharp scissors!
- Wrap your your long piece of wool between the cardboard discs a few times and tie it tightly.
- Remove the cardboard discs and fluff up your brand new pom pom!
Olive from Letters from the Lighthouse
Fans of Emma Carroll can capture the magic of Letters from the Lighthouse by dressing up as protagonist Olive, a determined twelve-year-old who is ready to crack secret codes and save the town!
Use our tie template and combine with a white shirt, and grey trousers or skirt.
Patch from The Accidental Stowaway:
To be Patch, heroine of Judith Eagle and Kim Geyer‘s seafaring novel, The Accidental Stowaway, you will need a red dress and some red ribbon to add to the end of Patch’s long plait.
Mia from Mia and the Lightcasters
To transform into twelve-year old umbra trainer Mia, from Mia and the Lightcasters by Janelle McCurdy and Ana Latese, you will need a purple hoodie, black joggers and a favourite fluffy toy the child would like to be their very own umbra!
If you would like to add some DIY into the outfit, why not create Mia’s magical staff?
You will need: A long piece of cardboard, purple paint and glitter.
- Simply cut your cardboard into a long staff-like shape.
- Paint the card purple and add sparkles!
- Allow to dry and then go tame your umbra!
Blanksy the Street Cat
Gavin Puckett and Allen Fatimaharan‘s Blanksy the Street Cat is a simple costume perfect for artistic children. To transform into this talented cat, try our DIY cat ears and tails!
You will need: Black paper, scissors, staples, hot glue gun or safety pins, a black and white outfit and a paintbrush.
- Firstly cut out a single strip of black paper long enough to fit around the child’s head. You may need to staple two strips together for older children.
- Staple the ends of the strips together so that it can comfortably fit on the child’s head without being too tight or too loose.
- Then cut out two triangles and staple these at the front of the circular strip to form the ears.
- Add this cat ear crown to your black and white outfit and you’re done! If you have extra time you can even cut out a black tail from the paper and attach it with a safety pin to the child’s outfit.
- Bring your paintbrush with you to complete the costume.
Hack and Whack from Two Terrible Vikings
Francesca Simon and Steve May‘s Two Terrible Vikings would be a perfect World Book Day costume for twins, or any pair of troublemakers. Cut out our printable Viking helmet to get your costume started and put long hair in two plaits. Make sure to print the helmet in A3, otherwise it might be too small.
If you would like an addition to the Viking helmet, why not add in a red or blue cape made out of an old blanket?
We hope you found a great costume! If you’re still looking for some inspiration, check out our selection of World Book Day books and find a new favourite character.
This article originally published for World Book Day 2023, and has been updated for 2026.
