We at NCS disagree most strongly, which is why the prep school dedicated the morning of World Book Day to a festival celebrating literature and the pleasures of reading. Elizabeth Hess began the day with an assembly about different traditions of storytelling, but not before the school was visited by Willy Wonka and his winners. In their forms, boys undertook research tasks on book characters and the history of books. If you’re ever in search of a quick read, did you know the world’s smallest book is less than 70 micrometres wide? At 10am, the whole school held a ‘Drop Everything and Read’, with pupils and staff losing themselves in a good book for half an hour. Finally, the prep school gathered to hear a performance by the winners of our Poetry Recital competition. It was wonderful to see our pupils celebrating books in different ways, including, of course, by dressing up as their favourite book characters. We’re already thinking of our costumes for next year!