Quick and Easy Book-Inspired Kids’ Costume Ideas
We all know it’s good to get the kids into reading as early as possible, but when it comes to dressing-up parties and dress-down days like World Book Day they usually want to go as superheroes and princesses. Here are some book-inspired fancy dress costumes that are easy to put together and will inspire your kids to put their nose in a book.
Earn your stripes
A stripy T-shirt is all you need for quite a few costumes. Add a pair of cardboard glasses and bobble hat to a red and white striped T-shirt for Where’s Wally (or Wilma). If you have a red and black T-shirt then Dennis the Menace is easy, especially if your little one has dark, curly hair. Horrid Henry is also a breeze with a blue and yellow striped T-shirt worn with some jeans.
Angelina Ballerina
If you have a budding ballerina in the house they’ll probably already have a pink leotard and ballet shoes, in which case Angelina Ballerina is just right for them. This site has a free printable template for mouse ears and a video showing how to put together the costume. You could also add some cute mouse face paint to finish it off.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Quite possibly the easiest one on the list, this works for a boy or girl as they hold a cartoon-style mask of the Wimpy Kid in front of their face – check out the Book Aid website for details of how to make it. The rest of the outfit is black shorts, a white T-shirt, a black backpack and a red diary that can act as a cover for their Wimpy Kid book.
Harry Potter
I know my kids are excited about the prospect of the new Harry Potter Forbidden Forest exhibition for when we next explore Warner Bros Studio Tours. I’m sure they’ll be asking to be Harry, Hermione or Ron next time they dress up – it’s really easy too as they can wear their own school uniform and you could even make up a new Hogwarts house to match the school colours.
The only other things you need are a cloak and wand. If you’re handy with a sewing machine, a black cape is easy to knock up, or you could even borrow one from a Batman or Darth Vader costume and put a badge on it. Then form a wand out of papier mache painted brown and ‘Expelliarmus!’ they’re ready to go.
Going on a bear hunt
For this costume you very simply need to match the coloured clothes of one of the children from the book. The kids will like carrying a teddy bear to act as the bear and you can even put a bit of make-up on them to represent mud. If you tie a pair of shoes together at the laces they can wear them around their neck like the part when they wade through the water. They’ll have great fun re-enacting the story all day with their playmates.
What are your kids’ favourite costumes to dress up in?
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.