Best Book Week costumes in Victoria
Each year Victorian parents turn their homes into a paper mache workshops in the name of Book Week. See all the pictures of the amazing costumes.
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The Herald Sun will be heading to primary schools across the state for photos but if we’re not at your school, why not send in your own? Scroll to the bottom to upload your pics.
Each year Victorian parents turn their homes into a paper mache workshops in the name of Book Week.
This year’s theme is Reading is Magic, so there’ll likely be many Harrys, Hermiones, Megs and Matildas parading at schools.
But it’s Alice in Wonderland who seems to be one of the most popular.
Frankston costume shop owner Tanya Bowyer said the cost of living crisis had not slowed demand for Book Week outfits.
“We’re getting smashed,” she said.
“I even had to open on Sunday from 10am-2pm, which I don’t normally do.”
Parents were under pressure to meet strict Book Week guidelines set by some schools.
“I’ve heard some schools have banned super hero costumes and a lot insist that the child has the book (with them) as well as the costume,” Ms Bowyer said.
“That means the parent has to find the book too.”
Ms Bowyer’s shop is next door to Frankston Library and she advised parents to consider borrowing the book that matched their child’s costume before organising the outfit.
Mildura Primary School parents Melissa Stackpool and Michelle both said they were glad their kids school didn’t have such rules.
“That’s pretty ridiculous, especially considering what the kids dress up as — half of them aren’t even book characters,” Ms Stackpool said.
OPINION: Susie O’Brien on why parents don’t need Book Week stress from “pious” schools
Another parent told the Herald Sun it should be about fun for the kids.
“I think it’s pretty silly. The kids should be able to dress up and have fun. They should read books, obviously, but they should be doing that anyway,” Reid Vanzanten said.
Malvern Primary School mum Jackie Wilson said she found it difficult to keep up with dress up days like Book Week.
“I have two boys so I feel like I am always sorting out costumes for Book Week or school concerts or sports carnivals,” she said.
“This year I convinced my eldest to rewear his Where’s Waldo costume which luckily still fits him.
“I just find it hard to keep up.”
Ms Wilson said her school did not require the kids to bring the books with their costume.
“Most of the stuff my boys read is from the library,” she said.
“It would just add another hassle to bring the book.”
Another mother Stephanie Barnard said she tried to DIY as much of her kids’ costumes as possible.
“I hit up Spotlight or the craft store as soon as I know what they want to be,” she said.
“It takes a bit more time but I think it is a lot cheaper than buying a pre-made costume.
“This way I can try to reuse stuff from other costumes too.”
Girton Grammar Bendigo mum Kim Vale said this year the big department stores like Kmart, Target and Big W had upped their game stocking kids costumes.
“You can get costumes for between $10 and $40,” she said.
But these ready-made costumes were cheap and plastic.
Ms Vale said her daughter was going as Barbie and the family was spending a bit more to put togheter a nicer costume that she could reuse for other occasions like dress up parties.
Characters from traditional books were top of the pops with young readers this year including Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland, according to costume shop owner Ms Boyer.
Willy Wonka themed costumes were also popular.
“I’ve sold out of Golden Tickets,” Ms Bowyer said.
“It’s an easy option — the child wears black top and bottoms and we sell them the Golden Ticket prop.”
There was also strong demand for Minions costumes.
“We’ve sold out of those too and had to restock,” Ms Bowyer said.
But it was army and Ninja costumes that were winning over male readers.
And gingerbread man costumes were proving popular to hire for adults as well as children.
“We get a lot of teachers in looking for outfits,” Ms Bowyer said.
Lead buyer for Australian online company costumes.com.au Jessica Fletcher said while the cost of living crunch had not dampened demand, families were choosing “more creative options”.
“We’ve seen a lot of interest in accessories. For instance people are buying animal accessories such as tails and using them with what they already have to create a 101 Dalmations costume,” Ms Fletcher said.
She said evergreen characters including the Wizard of Oz and “anything from Roald Dahl” were popular and many families were sticking to this year’s magic theme.
“There’s been an uptick in magician outfits.”
But many children were wedded to licensed characters, especially those attached to recently released movies were flying out the door.
“It’s all about Barbie and Minions and Bluey and the Wiggles,” Ms Fletcher said.
While she had not heard of schools outlawing superhero costumes, simple and traditional outfits were popular with teachers.
“There’s a lot of interest in capes, wands and hats,” she said.
“We also sell a lot of slipover costumes to adults. The Queen of Hearts, which is a playing card on the back and front, has been popular.”
Elwood Primary School student Poppy Eccleston is a big Harry Potter fan.
“Hermione is my favourite character and I love her because she found the Chamber of Secrets and she’s very smart and knows how to do a lot of spells,” she said.
“My favourite book is the first one (Philosopher’s Stone).
“My favourite thing about Book Week is seeing everyone’s costumes and when everyone dresses up, and it’s a surprise when someone is dressed up as the same thing as you.”
Meanwhile, Goldie Leggatt decided to come as Grip the squirrel from Who Stole My Nuts.
“I love book week because I get a fun surprise when I come to school and see what all my friends are dressed up as,” she said.
“It’s my favourite week because we get to play in our funny costumes.”
But it’s not just books that kids are fans of.
Xander Ryan chose to become Emmet from the Lego Movie and book LEGO: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know.
“He’s my favourite character from the movie, and he can basically build anything out of anything,” Xander said.
“It took five hours to make my costume with my dad.”
Meanwhile Sonny Bolton, who became Wally for Book Week, said he normally dressed as Harry Potter but wanted to “change it up”.
“My favourite thing about Book Week is that we get to see authors and illustrators sometimes,” he said.
Stars of Disney musical Beauty and the Beast are joining Melbourne’s Book Week celebrations by hosting free readings for kids at inner-city libraries, with attendees encouraged to dress up as their favourite character from the show.
Hayley Martin and Alana Tranter, who play enchanted feather duster Babette and wardrobe Madame respectively, will host a session at Docklands Library from 10.30am on August 22.
At the same time on the following day, Mrs Potts actor Jayde Westaby and Gareth Jacobs, who plays Cogsworth, will read to kids at narrm ngarrgu Library.
Westaby said creating a Book Week costume had become a family tradition in her household.
“When my son was young, I loved reading to him,” she said.
“I did all the voices – I really enjoyed bringing the books to life.”
Beauty and the Beast is playing at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
‘Reading is magic’: Book Week cheer at Monash Children’s Hospital
At Monash Children’s Hospital, staff were dressed up to the max to help spread this year’s theme: “Reading is magic”.
There was a butterfly enclosure, arts and crafts tables and a live performance of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” by the Players Theatre Company.
In addition to a colourful costume parade during the week, Albanvale Primary School in St Albans involved its entire school community in a massive reading festival.
The school held its annual “Litfest” event on Thursday, with parents and students spending the morning reading together across the school yard.
The festival was the “main event” of Book Week for the school this year, connecting its wider community through a passion for reading.
After about an hour of reading students then participated in a school-wide spelling bee.
Kids in the north of the state got in the spirit of Book Week with students from Mildura Primary School, Mildura South Primary School and Red Cliffs Primary School all having their Book Week parades.
Red Cliffs’ principal Luke Jeffers said that Book Week is a great way to get children excited about reading.
“I think it comes from a love of books and really celebrating what books can bring kids. Not just learning, but also getting lost in a book and a love of adventure,” Mr Jeffers said. i
Mildura Primary School grandparent, Mary Marks, said it was nice to see all the kids so happy.
“Looking at their little faces, it just warms my heart. And the fact it is all about books and reading makes it all the better,” Ms Marks said.
ST GABRIEL’S PRIMARY SCHOOL: TRARALGON
Down in Victoria’s southeast in Gippsland, book week magic has only gotten more mysterious, with dozens of students bringing their characters to life.
St Gabriel’s Primary School Traralgon principal Michelle Charlton said she was pleased with the results of book week at the school.
What was even more exciting, were some of the teachers’ costumes — where they dressed up as the very hungry caterpillar, fairies, and the characters from the Wizard of Oz.
Check out the full picture gallery from St Gabriel’s book week below.
CHURCHILL PRIMARY SCHOOL
Also in the Latrobe Valley, book characters came to life at Churchill Primary School.
From Shrek to Where’s Wally, colour and creativity was spotted all over.
Assistant principal Gail Harding said the team had made a lot of changes over the year to use evidence-based strategies to teach the children how to read.
“So we were really excited this year that the children could access the books that book week had released for us to read,” Ms Harding said.
“They’ve done lots of activities — the theme, ‘reading is magic’ we know reading is magic — it takes you to a whole other universe and our children are really engaging in all the stories that we read to them all the time.”
Ms Harding said at Churchill Primary School, students were not required to have the book in order to wear the costume.
“But most of the time, they will bring the book,” she said.
“A lot of the students will tell us about the book their costume is from and a lot of the children are reading novels at the moment in the classroom, so a lot of them come in the costumes from their novels.
“A lot of the little kids have got their books in their bags, they’ve shown us and popped them away.”
Ms Harding said the school encouraged the students to dress up as a book character, but were happy of they dressed up in general.
She said the main goal of book week was getting the children to learn about “rich” literature and about new authors.
“And to really get a wide variety of stories read to them as well, so I think for book week it’s just really going back to that stories are beautiful and stories are magic,” Ms Harding said.
The Herald Sun will be heading to primary schools across the state for photos but if we’re not at your school, why not send in your own?
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