Tomorrow is World Book Day, a day designed to promote a love of reading in children. Every year children from preschool age and up are given a token with which they can purchase a book for £1 from a range of books that have been specially produced for this Day.

My children, in particular, love taking their token and a £1 coin to the shops to choose a book. They get to make their own decision on which book to choose and they get to go to the counter and pay for it by themselves. It’s all a bit of fun and very ‘grown up’.

There is a part of World Book Day that I dread, however. The children are asked to come to school dressed as their favourite book character. I may sound miserable and cynical about this, but every year I groan at the mention of World Book Day purely and simply because of the aggravation it causes when it comes to sorting out the ‘right outfit’. We never have the fancy dress costume that matches the characters my children choose and nothing in any of our wardrobes will seem to do as an alternative. What results is an endless amount of trying on clothes, plus tears and tantrums until eventually we find something that will do.

This year we have managed to sort out the outfits ahead of schedule and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they don’t change their minds. Im sure other children view this day as an opportunity to wear something different to school than the usual uniform. But my two seem to take it a bit too seriously and turn it into more than what it is intended to be.

I always say to myself that next year we will get organised and sort out the outfit much sooner, but we never do. World Book Day seems to come around before we know it and we end up resorting to the usual frantic rush around. Next year I will have three outfits to sort out as my youngest is at school. Perhaps it will be a different experience with a boy. He might not get too hung up about it. In any case if all else fails he can go as Harry Potter like the majority of the boys always seem to do. It’s an easy look to achieve and everybody knows who you’re dressed up as, so why not?