Forgot Book Week? Emergency costumes that require zero craft skills

For some, Book Week is one of the most magical annual events in the Australian calendar – a time-honoured tradition stretching back generations (since 1945, specifically), where kids and their caregivers come together to get creative and celebrate their favourite stories and characters. For others, it’s just another tedious task that puts pressure on time-poor parents to whip up whimsy from their already-drained resources. Sometimes, it’s a bit of both.

There’s no doubt that, as with many other things, the rise of social media has seen the expectations around Book Week costumes soar, with the twin thieves of joy – competition and comparison – leading many parents to want to give up altogether or worse, pull out the Elsa and Woody costumes from the bottom of the dress-up box and call it a day.

The point of Book Week is, of course, to put books front and centre, and the costume frenzy can sometimes cause that to get lost. Because as much as kids might want to be a Disney princess or K-Pop Demon Hunter , it defeats the purpose (unless, of course, their primary point of contact for those characters is the book versions – in which case, break out the purple braids!).

It’s hard to keep up with the never-ending homework assignments of parenthood. But Book Week is a great opportunity to take a moment to connect with kids if you let the books lead the way, rather than the costumes. Going to the library or your home bookshelves and combing through them with your kids, having conversations about their favourite stories and characters, is far more important than any elaborately styled outfit.

Then, when it comes to the actual dressing up, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Adapting everyday clothing and household items you already own can be part of the fun – and online hubs like Facebook Marketplace are a great additional way to simplify the process, whether that’s by finding completed costumes that are being offloaded from Book Weeks past, or reusable items and materials you need to complete your kids’ looks.

Need more inspiration? Here are some basic foundations that can easily be adapted into all kinds of characters.

A farmer outfit can work for many books, including Raechel Whitchurch’s George the Farmer books, as well as the shortlisted 2026 Children’s Book of the Year title A Farm by the Sea by Jillian Packer. It’s also a great basis for a woodcutter costume – just add a cardboard axe to blend right into Little Red Riding Hood . Another option for an add-on is some shredded yellow or straw-coloured paper attached to the neck, ankles, sleeves, and a hat, to create a scarecrow costume that could fit a number of books, including The Scarecrows’ Wedding by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

This is all you need for a basic “old person” hair and make-up look that can be paired with clothes you already own (or even borrowed from grandparents) to make a grandparent character. You possibly already have the costume from a “100 Days” dress-up.