With Book Week rapidly approaching (17 to 23 August), it’s time to get your thinking cap on! You need to come up with a few awesome book week costumes for boys that will ramp up the excitement and engage your kids with books. However, if you have no idea where to start, we have some easy book week ideas for boys that will blow your socks off!
From a pirate costume, cat in the hat costume and Lord of the Rings costumes to Minecraft, Harry Potter and lots more. We have ten of the easiest book character costumes for boys, so even if you aren’t very good at DIY – there should be at least one of these costumes that you can put together with no worries. Enjoy!
1. Pirate costume
Every little boy wants to grow up to be a pirate! These are so simple to create and it’s likely you have most of the clothes somewhere in your home. For a pirate costume, you need a t-shirt, either red and white stripes or just plain white, tucked into black, below the knee shorts or trousers (you can cut old trousers down to fit and leave the ends ragged – no sewing!). You can add a rope or scarf for a belt, but it’s not totally necessary, then you want a black pirate hat or just a scarf tied around their head, eye patch and swashbuckling sword!

2. Where’s Wally costumes
The simplest way to create a Where’s Wally costume is to find a red and white striped long-sleeve shirt. The features of your where’s wally character needs to have a matching red and white beanie and thick round glasses. Then match this costume with blue trousers and there you go – one of the cheapest and easiest book week costumes for boys ever!

3. Cat in the hat costume
This is another one of our fab book week ideas for boys and is great fun, but will take a few DIY skills! For your cat in the hat costume, you need a navy blue jumpsuit with long arms and legs. If you can’t find one of these, then a long-sleeved navy t-shirt and trousers or track pants will do. You need to find some white fleecy material and cut out an oblong shape that covers the chest and tummy area, and either sew or glue this onto the jumpsuit. If you are using the t-shirt and trousers combo, then just glue it to the t-shirt and leave the bottom bit to hang down. Glue on a big red bow at the neck and top off with a very tall white and red striped hat! The hat might take some imagination, so you might want to source it from a costume store, but you should manage the rest quite easily.

4. Harry Potter costumes
If your little boy would love to be Harry Potter for a day, then this is one of the book character costumes for boys he will love! All you need is a long-sleeved cloak that can be zipped up the front, a red-lined hood and Hogwarts motif. Wear this over black trousers and shoes and teamed with a white school shirt, grey jumper and school tie. It might take you a while to find the right type of cloak, but once you have that, it’s easy from that point.

5. Lord of the Rings costumes
Just about everyone loves these storybooks and there are many Lord of the Rings costumes to choose from for your little boy. One of the easiest costumes to recreate is a Hobbit because you just need a brown cloak and a really long, oversized brown jacket over a white t-shirt and brown cut off trousers. Mess up their hair and add a bit of dirt to their skin and you have your very own little Hobbit!

6. Spiderman costumes
Every little boy wants to be a superhero one day, so Spiderman seems a great idea! This costume definitely needs a glue gun to re-create, but it’s also very doable. You will need a dark blue costume, but leggings and a long-sleeved t-shirt should do the trick. Next, find some red material and cut it to fit across the front of the shoulders and down the chest to the waistband. Use a permanent black marker to outline the muscles of the chest and abdomen and then glue it in place. Last comes a Spiderman mask and you have the perfect little Spiderman for Book Week!

7. Superman costumes
If you have already made a Spiderman costume, then Superman is very similar. You just need to change the red material that covers the chest and abdomen of Spiderman and replace it with a Superman symbol, then a red cloak and red boots or long socks. Isn’t it simple to create these fabulous book week costumes for boys?

8. Batman costumes
Again, the Batman costume is similar to the other superheroes, but instead of blue, you need to focus on black. So find a pair of black leggings, cloak and a long-sleeved t-shirt, a gold belt and a Batman mask and you have you own little Batman!

9. Very Hungry Caterpillar costumes
Don’t put away your glue gun yet, because this lovely little Very Hungry Caterpillar costume is very easy to make! You could go all out and create a costume on your sewing machine, but the easy option is to buy some turquoise and green cardboard, cut them into circles using a dinner plate as a template and glue or staple them together so that it looks like a caterpillar. You can them staple this to the neck of a turquoise t-shirt so that it hangs down their front and use some red cardboard to make a ‘crown’ with bright red eyes and purple feelers. Yet another example of the numerous book character costumes for boys you can put together in an afternoon!

10. Willy Wonka costumes
This must be the simplest costume to put together. All you need is a red and white striped long-sleeved t-shirt, red and white striped bobble hat, overly large black-framed glasses and you can get away with a pair of jeans for the bottom.

Looking for more book week ideas for boys? Check out Costume Box for some brilliant ideas!
