Beano has partnered with World Book Day, the charity that encourages children to love books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own, offering a £1 Book Token with this week’s issue, to help support their Share A Million Stories campaign.
The partnership has the support of Dav Pilkey, author and illustrator of the Dog Man and Captain Underpants book series.
The special edition includes a one-off strip entitled “A Million Stories in One“, written by Nigel Auchterlounie with art by Nigel Parkinson, which sees Dennis enjoying reading and mashing-up classic children’s tales to entertain Bea and Gnasher, in the name of World Book Day, in a tale that gives a nod to the “The Three Bears“, the long-running strip created by Leo Baxendale, who made their debut in the weekly humour comic way back in Issue 881 in 1959, and who last regularly appeared in 2016, written and drawn by Alan Ryan.
The World Book Day charity is calling on kids and families to Share a Million Stories during World Book Day month, which begins tomorrow, 27th February and runs until 29th March.
Alongside the special strip, Beano.com will feature a Story-O-Meter which provides kids with the building blocks to create their own stories. The online tool allows children to use millions of combinations of characters, objects and places to make their very own creations.
Kids will then be asked to share their story with a member of their family or a friend so they can be added to Beano’s totaliser and World Book Day’s Share a Million Stories national total.
For over 80 years, Beano has had a rich heritage of championing stories and reading, using combinations of visual story-telling and funny stories to get children loving reading.
Research published in Books Beyond Time, a report by Oxford University Press back in 2013 led by James Clements, showed that parents reading with their children for as little as 10 minutes a day can make a significant difference to the child’s achievement levels and shared reading has the single biggest impact on a child’s independent reading habits – research supported by Egmont’s Print Matters More Study in 2017. That’s why World Book Day is calling on everyone in the UK and Ireland to share stories for 10 minutes a day in schools, libraries, bookshops, at home, everywhere and anywhere, to Share a Million Stories together.
“We are so happy to have partnered with World Book Day this year,” commented Emma Scott, CEO of Beano Studios. “Whether kids are enthusiastic or reluctant readers, Beano has always been a great comic-leap in helping kids to find great joy in reading.
“With World Book Day and our Beano Story-O-Meter at Beano.com, we are getting kids to carry on their reading adventures, so they can make their own stories and let their imaginations run wild.”
“We know that children love comics, and that children are more likely to read more when they can choose what they read,” added Cassie Chadderton, CEO of World Book Day. “World Book Day is very excited to be part of the Beano world, with Dennis, Bea and Gnasher all getting involved to help us Share a Million Stories.
“We hope they’ll inspire many more children to use their £1 World Book Day book token to choose a book of their own.”
“As a kid growing up, I have fond memories of going to the library with my mom,” Dav Pilkey, author and illustrator of the Dog Man and Captain Underpants book series reveals, “who let me pick whatever book I wanted to read – including comic books – which helped me to associate reading with love, and led me to discover many other books from different genres.
“Reading without judgment was a turning point in my life and is what made me a lifelong reader.”
• The Beano special World Book Day comic is in stores today, Wednesday 26th February 2020Children can use their £1 token with this week’s Beano to get a free World Book Day book or get £1 off any book or audiobook from tomorrow, Thursday 27th February 2020. Everyone can help to smash the national target and log their story shares here. Over 400,000 children are already registered. There are loads of book prizes up for grabs every week of the month
• Beano’s special Story-O-Meter, as well as much, much more is accessible on Beano.com
• World Book Day takes place on Thursday 5th March 2020 | Register to Share a Million Stories at www.worldbookday.com/share-a-million-stories
FURTHER READING…
• To find out more about OUP’s resources for children, see their UK Education and Children’s Books website
• Egmont’s Print Matters More Study
Watch some classic Three Bears episodes, thanks to Beano.com, from the 1993 The Beano Video (or The Beano All-Stars, for the DVD release)
• Find World Book Day-related items on AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News