World Book Day 2025 £1 books unveiled

World Book Day has announced the ten £1 / €1.50 books for next year's celebrations, which will take place on Thursday 6th March 2025. 

Children can exchange their free World Book Day token, distributed through schools, some libraries and booksellers, from 13 February - 23 March 2025. 

World Book Day worked with ten schools to decide this year's £1 book selection, which include a range of recognised brands such as Pokemon, Bluey and Lego, as well as a poetry collection and books from authors including Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Tom Palmer and Julia Donaldson. 

You can watch the authors introduce each of their books on YouTube. 

World Book Day 2025 books:    This is the full list of 2025 free £1 / €1.50 books

Beginning Readers

The Magic Balloon by Carl Anka, illus Amanda Quartey  (DK)
When a rogue kick means a football is lost in the weeds, the last thing these friends expect to find buried amongst the nettles is a colourful hot air balloon! One step inside sparks magic and, all of a sudden, they find themselves flying away, soaring high above the clouds. Look! There's the school, and there! The local shop! But wait, it's all getting smaller as the balloon rises up…up…and up! Whizz under rainbows, through rain clouds and into space to float beside the stars in this whimsical, cosmic adventure, seeing the world in a completely different way. . .

Bluey  (Ladybird)
Meet BLUEY and BINGO and all their family, friends and toys. For real life! The book introduces key characters - Bluey, Bingo, Bandit, Chilli, Muffin, Socks, some of Bluey's favourite friends and toys and also includes Bluey games from the show to play at home. The £1/€1.50 books are also available in braille, large print & audio via Guide Dogs, Vision Ireland, RNIB and Calibre Audio. 

Who's in Acorn Wood  by Julia Donaldson, illus Axel Scheffler (Macmillan Children's Books)
Welcome to Acorn Wood! Meet Bear, Cat, Rabbit and their Acorn Wood friends in this fun rhyming search-and-find story. Perfect for fans of the bestselling Tales from Acorn Wood preschool series by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, which has been delighting parents and children for 25 years.

Barbara's Very Useful Guide to Moods by Nadia Shireen (Puffin)
Fans of Barbara Throws a Wobbler will love this title for beginner readers! Barbara’s Very Useful Guide to Moods by Nadia Shireen takes us through a day full of big emotions in this hilarious guide to what we feel.

Ag Buzzáil sa Ghairdín by Áine Ní Ghlinn, illus Andrew Whitson (An tSnáthaid Mhór)
Bíonn Billí Beach ag obair go dian sa ghairdín. Bíonn Billí ag obair ó mhaidín go hoíche.
Follow Billí's magical working day gathering nectar from all the beautiful flowers in the garden. This rhyming story of Billí, the hardest-working bee in the garden, is a tale that will delight all eco warriors, big and small.

Early Books

Fox & Son Tailers, by Paddy Donnelly (The O'Brien Press)
Rory's dad, Fox, is a tailer. The BEST in the business! Animals come from all over to have their tails made by him. Rory helps in the shop and one of his jobs is measuring the customers for the tails - which isn't always easy!  But Rory is bored of making the same old tails. He has his own amazing ideas… This World Book Day £1/€1.50 book Fox and Son Tailers is only available in Ireland.

The Adventures of Paddington:  Farm Escape!  (HarperCollins Children's Books)
A hilarious new picture book story based on the award-winning animated TV series, The Adventures of Paddington. Paddington can't wait to spend the day at the City Farm with his new friend Baaz. But when he forgets to shut the gate, all the animals escape!  Will Paddington and Baaz be able to find all the runaway animals in time for the City Farm's big opening event?

All Poems Aloud by Joseph Coelho, Illus Daniel Gray-Barnett (Quarto (Wide Eyed Editions))
The poems in this book want to be read aloud! Read these poems to your self or to a friend, loudly, softly or in a whisper. There are poems to make you laugh, testing tongue twisters and poems to make you think. From Children's Laureate 2022-2024, here are all sorts of poems, for every occasion and every voice.

Pokémon (Farshore)
Become an instant expert on awesome Pokémon and their Trainers! Discover special skills and epic Evolutions and learn about legendary battles and super stats. With this epic Pocket-sized Pokémon guide, you’ll be a top Trainer in no time!

Fluent Readers

Lego: Our Amazing Universe by Jennifer Swanson and Arwen Hubbard (DK)
Explore the furthest frontiers of space and the wonders of the world - and learn to build the Universe's most incredible sights with LEGO bricks! Take a tour of planets, stars, galaxies, and black holes far away from Earth. Discover how the Big Bang created our Universe, dock with a space station, and launch a probe to make contact with extraterrestrials! Travel the continents and look inside volcanoes, check out the world's tallest waterfall, swim down to the ocean's depths, and much more. See the most incredible places on our planet and beyond without leaving home! With amazing LEGO models to inspire you, what will you build first?

The Fart That Broke World Book Day by Stephen Mangan, illus Anita Mangan (Scholastic)
It's World Book Day and school is full of kids dressed up as their favourite literary characters and celebrating the magic of reading. But something smells funny… in every classroom, there's a teacher letting go of a long, loud, ground-shaking, ground-breaking fart. And when our hero spots a fellow pupil (dressed almost too convincingly as an alien) hovering by the teachers' bums, and then discovers what looks like a spaceship powered by farts behind a hedge, he's on a mission to stop some unexpected visitors from kicking up a massive stink!

Soccer Diaries: Rocky Takes the Lead by Tom Palmer (Rebellion Publishing)
Rocky Race is going to take football by storm! Bright, tough, and sporty Rocky has always loved football, so much in fact that she’s moved to the United States to train at a high school with an amazing soccer team. She’s made new friends, even won a state championship! But now her best friends from her home in Melchester, England, have come to visit and play a match against her new American team. Rocky is thrilled to see them, but not everyone is happy: her American friends don’t understand their British accents. The British friends don’t understand why the Americans are so loud! Will Rocky be able to take the lead and show everyone that they’re all united by football?

The Wolf Trials: A Geomancer Book by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, illus Manuel Šumberac (Hachette Children's Group)
Eira longs to see the world, but as the daughter of the fearsome Wolf Queen she's lived all her life concealed in the Castle of Broken Boats at the heart of her mother's kingdom. New subjects and prisoners arrive daily, and no one but traitors and Ryders leave. The Ryders, an elite group of sea wolf-riders who are the Wolf Queen's most trusted warriors, are selected at a young age after proving themselves in the wolf trials. With her mother away in battle, Eira decides to disguise herself and participate in this year's selection - but will she succeed? Will she be recognised? And most importantly of all … will she survive the wolf trials?

Gwyrdd ein Byd by Duncan Brown, illus Helen Flook (Rily)
Have you heard about the ancient fish in Llyn Tegid? What about the bird that nests in rabbit warrens on Skomer Island? And did you know that we have rainforests here in Wales? To learn more about these and lots of other fascinating facts, join nature expert Duncan Brown on a walk through Wales. From mountains to marshes and from cities to the seaside - amazing wildlife is all around us. With detailed drawings by Helen Flook on every page, Gwyrdd ein Byd presents a vivid picture of Welsh wildlife - and explains what we can do to protect it.

Ydych chi wedi clywed am y pysgodyn hynafol sy'n byw yn Llyn Tegid? Beth am yr aderyn sy'n nythu mewn tyllau cwningod ar Ynys Sgomer? Ac oeddech chi'n gwybod bod gennym ni fforestydd glaw yma yng Nghymru? I ddysgu mwy am y pethau hyn a llwyth o ffeithiau difyr eraill, dewch am dro drwy Gymru gyda'r naturiaethwr Duncan Brown. O'r môr i'r mynydd ac o'r trefi i'r ffermydd, mae bywyd gwyllt rhyfeddol o'n cwmpas ym mhob man. Gyda darluniau cain gan Helen Flook ar bob tudalen, mae Gwyrdd Ein Byd yn wledd i'r llygaid ac yn cyflwyno gwybodaeth bwysig am natur Cymru - a'r pethau bychain y gallwn ni eu gwneud i'w diogelu.

Independent Readers

This Story is a Lie by Benjamin Dean (Simon & Schuster)
Harley Matthews is a used to fading into the background. That is until Rising Stars, the high-school programme that takes talented students and makes their dreams come true, choose him to participate for the coveted position of winner for this year's competition.
The first problem? They've also chosen Annabella, Billie and Theo. Aka Year Eleven's most popular and powerful pupils. Aka the Perfect Four. The second problem? They didn't choose the last member of the Perfect Four: Oliver. The third problem? Harley must compete with them all to win.
Harley's world is turned upside down as he's thrust into the school's limelight. So much for laying low. But with new-found supporters comes envious enemies. And when he finds a chalk outline of his body drawn at the bottom of the school stairs, he has the face the reality that someone wants him out the competition - permanently. But the underdog deserves to win, right?
Remember, this story is a lie.

Find out more, including how to register, at World Book Day