Readers’ World Book Day costumes – from the Cat in the Hat to Mr Tickle
Here are some of the characters you told us about after late nights on the sewing machine
Campaigners warn of ‘book poverty’ as UK celebrates World Book Day
Tom Watson, deputy Labour party leader, condemns fall in library borrowing as a ‘scandal’, as organisers encourage parents and children to make use of free book token
Set the children free – show them the joy of reading for reading’s sake
To slip the confines of reality for 15 or 20 minutes is a superpower too few of our schools are nurturing, asks Guardian columnist Lola Okolosie
Give older children story time to halt fall in young readers, urge experts
Publisher Egmont says steep decline in parents reading to children – who thereby learn to read for pleasure – is ‘a significant threat to their wellbeing’
Benjamin Lee obituary
Other lives: Dedicated doctor and accomplished musician
Simon Norton obituary
Mathematical prodigy and brilliant problem solver who was the subject of The Genius in My Basement
Eric Dunning obituary
Other lives: Sociologist and authority on the subject of aggression and excitement in sport
Swansea University announces ‘decolonised’ English course
In tune with calls to study fewer dead white males, university announces new module focused on ‘hyper-contemporary’ International Dylan Thomas prize
Book clinic: what’s likely to impress an English literature admissions tutor?
Philip Hensher suggests some great novelists, from GK Chesterton to VS Naipaul, who aren’t on the curriculum
John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing review – oddball or visionary?
The influential critic, social reformer and troubled genius profoundly changed British culture. In his 200th anniversary year, can this exhibition help us see him clearly?
‘Pretty aint it … Mrs Yonge said so’: the changing face of teaching poetry
An exhibition in Cambridge shows how poems have been taught to GCSE students down the decades – with pupils’ own textbook annotations included
Stonewall defends ‘vital’ LGBT children’s books after spate of ban attempts
In the last week, separate moves in Canada and the US threatened to restrict young readers’ access to LGBT-themed illustrated stories
The Guardian view on academic freedom: the right to be very wrong
Editorial: Sometimes it takes a true believer to make clear the absurdities of a faith. An Oxford professor’s view on sexuality discredit his church’s doctrine
The vandals destroying libraries should have the book thrown at them
A great public service is being run down by a state that prefers cost-cutting to culture
David Kynaston: ‘There is an anti-privilege mood. It is hard to see private schools escaping unscathed’
The social historian on why he believes Britain may finally tackle the inequality perpetuated by independent education