The World Book Day is an event run by a charity organization that gives out £1 to children to either spend on the promoted books or on reducing the price of books, it is officially observed on March 1 but the tokens can be spent between February 26 and March 5.
However after the release of the list, many writers especially those of children works have shown their grievances stating that the list was made for ‘celebrity’ writers.
David Arnold who wrote Skellig made a post online about overlooking writer’s of children works who the selection should be about and going for celebrity names and other writers like Anthony McGowan, Philip Pullman and Johanne Harris who wrote Chocolat, who made a blog post about most of these celebrity works being written by ghostwriters having a detrimental effect on literacy in general.
Though David Arnold said it was not a bad thing that celebrities write books but McGowan had said that reading the list and finding the names there had incensed him.
Kristen Grant however who is the World Book Day director stated:
“There are lots of hugely loved authors and brands on the list … and yes there are celebrity writers on the list (who have written their own books) but if they are the catalyst to encouraging a non-reader to pick up a book and start a nationwide conversation about reading, then everyone will be better off”.
The selection is made by a panel of booksellers and supermarkets and books that will appeal to the widest number of children possible. The charity organization also added on how books are selected:
“We have to balance the publisher representation too”.
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