This time last year children were celebrating World Book Day in schools, but one year on, things look very different. To mark a World Book Day like no other, Cardiff-based publisher Candy Jar Books is making a swathe of its children’s books available for free.

World Book Day 2021 will take place on the 4th of March, and with children across the country beginning to return to school, Candy Jar thought it was fitting to mark this dual occasion with a giveaway.

Head of Publishing at Candy Jar, Shaun Russell, says: “As a whole, publishers have been relatively lucky throughout the pandemic. While like everyone we have faced exceptional pressures, lockdown has reintroduced many to the escapism that only reading can offer. We have heard from many of our customers, faced with keeping their kids occupied over lockdown, what a boon this has been.”

“It is well-established that reading leads to higher educational achievement in children, so perhaps in the long run this newfound enthusiasm might prove a silver lining to all of the disruption young people have faced when it comes to their education.”

“As hopefully some semblance of normality begins to return to our lives, we thought it would be in the spirit of things to furnish young readers with something to keep their reading habits going for the months and years to come.”

Included within Candy Jar’s giveaway are The Norris Girls by Nigel Hinton, an author that has been a fixture of English curriculums for decades, Something I Should Know, a debut young adult novel by Siobhan Kalli, Tommy Parker: Destiny Will Find You by Cardiff-based Anthony Ormond, The Lucy Wilson Mysteries: Avatars of the Intelligence and The Bandril Invasion, a Doctor Who spin-off featuring a lead female character of mixed heritage who lives in Ogmore-by-Sea, and Keeping Clear of Paradise Street, the memoir of beloved children’s poet Brian Moses.

Candy Jar will also be including titles from Jelly Bean Self-Publishing in including Messy Dad Goes to the Beach by Gemma Greening and Timesplit by Paul Robinson. Jelly Bean Self-Publishing was awarded Self-Publishing Company of the Year at the 2020 Welsh Enterprise awards. The Welsh Enterprise awards recognise the contribution of small to medium-sized businesses to the Welsh economy.

Since its inception in 2013, Jelly Bean Self-Publishing has provided a range of publishing services to independent authors all around the world. Shaun continues: “Self-publishing has grown enormously as an industry over recent years. Thanks to lockdown, the Internet, the rise of eBooks, and the refinement of Print on Demand technology, it is now viable both economically and practically for independent authors to find engaged readerships in an incredible variety of ways.”

Jelly Bean author Molly Arbuthnott has kindly offered her picture book Oscar the Ferry Cat. She hopes it gives stretched parents a helping hand. She says: “As we can’t be together in person this year, it is a great treat to be able to share stories through a giveaway. Oscar has at its heart a message about never giving up – very apt, I think – and I hope it proves a tonic to readers young and old!”

Former teacher, Phillip Davies, has also given Candy Jar permission to giveaway his sci-fi adventure book Borc Attack. He says: “Having spent over thirty years teaching children and encouraging a love of reading, I feel it is a story most children will thoroughly enjoy. However, I realise that buying new reading material for children can be an expensive business. This giveaway will be great for children and parents alike.”

The giveaway will run for five days, starting on World Book Day (4 th March), and the full list of titles is available below. There’s no catch: no sign ups required, no add ons – just free books for all.

Shaun concludes: “There hasn’t been much to celebrate this past year, but there has at least been a recognition that we’re all in this together. It’s a spirit we will hopefully take with us as we return to the patterns of our previous lives. With so many parents feeling the pinch, with so much uncertainty as to what the future holds, we thought making our titles available for free was only one way to truly embrace the spirit of the times.”

So come one, come all, the Candy Jar Great world Book Day Giveaway goes live on March 4th!

Below are the covers of all the books available…