THEY were pirates and princesses, firemen and fairies, bugs and bears.

Dressing up boxes were raided in homes across the district as schoolchildren brought their favourite reads to life for World Book Day.

It was a colourful scene at Privett Montessori Nursery as the youngsters paraded proudly in, in their imaginative outfits.

Parents were invited to read stories to the excited children too.

A special outing to Petersfield to take part in the national celebration was enjoyed by the young book-lovers at Froxfield Primary School.

Class one pupils dropped by One Tree Books in Lavant Street to get creative for the shop’s ‘colour a bookmark’ competition.

They then went on to the library where two of the librarians, Jules and Clare, gave the children an informative talk about how to find book using the Dewey system.

The youngsters were asked to locate books on the next topic at school, farming, which they did successfully.

They were read a story at the end of the fun session and returned to school to take part in more activities.