Book Week costume tips

In 2026, CBCA Book Week runs from Saturday the 22nd to Friday the 28th of August.

There’s no exact ‘right way’ to dress like my characters. Some of them change their outfits several times in a book. Some wear historical fashions that are tricky to recreate at home. I love seeing creative interpretations of them at school Book Week parades! But if you’re a busy parent looking for ideas, here are some tips that might help:

• Cover illustrations. The costumes on the covers aren’t the only possible interpretations, but they’re a great place to find inspiration!

• Nail the accessories, base the rest on vibes. Most of my characters have a couple of props or accessories that will help to identify them. If your child is going to school as Billy Pyke and you’ve got his glasses and flat cap sorted, any red outer layer will do if you don’t have a red jacket, and ‘olde-worlde-ish’ is good enough for the pants, shirt and shoes.

• Reduce, reuse and save. Use what’s already in your wardrobe, dress-up box, craft cupboard or recycling bin. Check the op shop (useful for Grandest characters). Make Cori’s golden gauntlet from an old dishwashing glove or a cereal box rather than buying plastic armour.

• Clues in the book. Clothing descriptions are often included when a character is introduced for the first time. And in Chapter 3 of The Grandest Bookshop in the World, Pa assigns different colours to each of his children in a bedtime story, including blue for Pearl and yellow for Vally. Ask your child what they remember about the character and setting, too.

• Maybe stick to human characters? I’m not sure how to dress up a kid as an invisible ghost, a 15-metre monster-whale or a three-storey Victorian-era bookshop. But if you pull it off, please send me photos!