![\"work-with-us\"](\"https://kinlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/elementor/thumbs/Kin-logo-orange-gradient-mhhrwf1csqste0fc2426m7c37sm7shg2cz41e61lro.png\" "\\"Kin"){kind=logo}
tel: 07871 766937
Ah, March. It brings the start of spring, the birth of lambs and, to every parent’s delight: World Book Day. This weekend, parents will be rummaging around in a panic trying to find a literary character with an easy costume. If you’re a family of colour, you may also be trying to find a costume that is both easy AND bears some sort of resemblance to your child.
To ease your panic, we’ve put together a few ideas that would work for children of all races.
Animal characters are a good alternative for children from ethnic minorities that don’t want to dress as a caucasian character but can’t find a desirable character of the same ethnicity.
You\’ll need: mouse ears and a suit.
Stuart Little is the mouse-son of Mr. Little in a story that was my personal favourite as a child. Mr. Little makes a tiny suit for Stuart to wear so, if you happen to have a child-sized suit at home and can find some mouse ears to wear then this one’s for you. If you’d like to add some special touches, you can include the keys, money and handkerchief that Stuart keeps in his suit pockets.
You\’ll need: a spider costume.
Charlotte, the spider from \”Charlotte’s Web\”, is ideal if you have an old Halloween costume lying around.
You\’ll need: pretty much any tropical animal costume.
This is another good excuse to repurpose an old costume from home. The Jungle Book features a snake, a tiger, a wolf. Take your pick!
If you\’re dressing as a wolf, you could take a doll in with you to represent the baby Mowgli.
You can probably put together these costumes using items you already have in the house. Perfect if you\’re in a last-minute panic.
You\’ll need: a hat, scarf, gloves and a pair of sunglasses.
Optional: bandages and a fake moustache.
This one is the easiest by far (but it doesn’t involve your child actually becoming invisible for the day and not going to school). To hide his invisibility, the Invisible Man wraps up so that no one can see his skin. Dig out your child’s winter wear (gloves, a hat, scarf and a pair of sunglasses) and you’re good to go! If you want to embrace the costume fully, wrap some bandages around your child’s face and get a fake moustache too.
You\’ll need: a lab coat and stethoscope.
Optional: name badge.
Dressing up as Dr. Frankenstein is far easier than dressing as Frankenstein himself. If you can get ahold of a lab coat and a stethoscope you’re pretty much done here. You could don a “Dr. Frankenstein” name badge if you wanted too but then Bob’s your uncle and Frankenstein’s your monster!
You\’ll need: wellies and a toy pig.
Fern Arable is the farmer’s daughter in Charlotte’s Web that adopts Wilbur (the pig) and saves his life. All you need for this is some wellies and a toy pig. Et voilà!
It can be a little disheartening to realise that there are so few main characters in books from ethnic minorities (just 4% of children\’s books published in 2017 featured a BAME character). Often, children want to dress up as someone that looks like them. There are a few characters, however, and we\’ve put together some ideas below.
Optional: a lunch box or backpack with some exotic food inside.
Technically this is a poem, not a book, however, the fact that this is a short poem increases the chances your child will actually read about the literary character they’re dressing up as.
The poem ‘Sandwich’ is written by a child with a Jamaican grandmother that forces them to take a feast of Jamaican food on a school trip when all he/she needed to bring was the eponymous sandwich. If you can send your child to school with a backpack and a bit of cultural food, people will be so happy they’ll forget all about the poem/book distinction.
You\’ll need: a chocolate bar and a printer.
This idea comes with a bit of trivia – Roald Dahl originally wrote the character of Charlie as a black boy but his agent persuaded him to change it. You can download a Willy Wonka-themed chocolate wrapper and golden ticket from Pinterest. Then you can send your child to school in their favourite clothes and a bar of chocolate.
You\’ll need: professional-looking clothing and a notepad.
This one crosses into slightly controversial territory as “Hidden Figures” is best known as a film based on a non-fiction book. The story is truly inspirational, however, focusing on the black women that were a critical part of helping NASA to put the first men on the moon. The U.S. space race peaked during the sixties so some kind of sixties dress or professional-looking outfit would be ideal but you can accessorise the outfit with a notepad covered with mathematical formulae.
I have to admit that I haven’t read this one personally, however, the protagonist of “Does My Head Look Big In This?” is a teenager that decides to wear a hijab full-time and doesn’t care what people think. This sounds like a lovely character for little girls that already wear a hijab.
You\’ll need: a doll.
Optional: make-up.
Kiran Sharma is a boy that doesn’t fit in – he likes to wear his mother’s make-up and practise ballet – but then he realises that his differences are because he is the reincarnation of the Hindu god Krishnaji.
Dressing up as this character may need a brave boy but it can be done easily by taking a doll into school or, if they’re daring, by putting on a bit of theatrical make-up!
We’re still on the hunt for characters that work for East Asian children but we’ll update this as soon as we can! If you have any suggestions, please do get in touch.
Kin Learning offers maths, English and 11+ tuition in Bromley and Sidcup.
You can find out how we work below.
t: 07871 766937
We’re passing on our expert knowledge to you with this free and comprehensive guide to the local 11+ exams.
Covers: Bexley, Kent, St. Olave’s and Newstead exams
Includes: catchment areas, historical pass marks and more.
![wrapper](\"https://i.pinimg.com/originals/db/17/cd/db17cd3a64594bdc674e5e7d6de519ff.jpg\"){kind=link}