WILLY Wonka and his trusted Oompa Loompas, Elmer and The Very Hungry Caterpillar were among those celebrating World Book Day across Solihull.
Children, and adults, went all out for the day dressing as their favourite characters and sharing their most treasured stories.
Greg from Diary of a Wimpy Kid made an appearance as did the Mandalorian across schools in the borough.
And young children came face-to-face characters from well-loved picture books including Elmer the patchwork elephant and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Year six pupils and their teacher at Coppice Academy dressed up characters from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory complete with Willy Wonka, his beloved Oompa Loompas and Charlie Bucket.
Lyndon School’s Art and Design department transformed their classrooms into the land of Oz and the English department decorated their doors in the style of book covers.
The school also hosted a book swap in the library, along with activities and quizzes and held a bookmark designing competition.
And at lunchtime the canteen put on a book themed menu, serving up Mr Twit wormy spaghetti, Rat burger and Bruce Bogtrotter’s chocolate cake.
World Book Day was created by UNESCO in 1995 as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, it is marked in over 100 countries.
The World Book Day charity’s Strategy 2023-27 sets out that its aim is “more children, from all backgrounds, developing a life-long habit of reading for pleasure, benefiting from the improved life chances this brings them.”
