Schools around the county were populated by a kaleidoscope of fictional characters to celebrate World Book Day.

Schools held events aimed at getting children excited about reading.

At Wantage Primary School, the school was filled with Harry Potters, Narnian queens, lions, dragons and pirates as pupils dressed up as their favourite book character.

Meanwhile, at Headington School, there were a fair few literary characters in lessons as about 100 pupils celebrated their favourite books by dressing as the heroes – or the villains.

Local author Julia Golding went along to judge the outfits and selected a group who came as James and the Giant Peach and a girl who came as a character from Jane Austen as winners.

Jo Cowper, the school’s marketing director, said: “There was some fabulous imagination on show. The children came as a whole world of different things, everything from classic fairy tales to newer books.”

For World Book Day on Thursday, Oxford University Press produced six books for children costing £1 each. The books, including Dinosaur Cove: Battle of the Giants and The Charlie Small Journals: Valley of Terrors, were launched at Oxford’s University Museum of Natural History.

About 100 children from East Oxford, Botley and Windale primary schools spent the morning handling fossils, making dinosaur masks and following a dinosaur trail.

They also got some tips on drawing dinosaurs from Dinosaur Cove illustrator Mike Spoor.

He said: “It’s a bit like magic really, when they see the pictures emerging in front of them and I think it makes a link between the book, the storyteller, the subject and the drawings. It’s really good for me, because I get the response – they sit there boggle-eyed.”

Botley Primary School pupil Khalid Shodunke, six, said “Dinosaur Cove is my fav-ourite because the two boys found out stuff about dinosaurs.

“It was very good.”

Botley deputy headteacher Simon Jackson said: “They came back really fired up.

“They were fascinated by the Tyrannosaurus Rex teeth and asking questions.

“When they got back they got their teacher to read the next part of the book, because they had a little snippet of the story at the museum but stopped at a very exciting place.

“They like reading but I believe this will encourage them even more, it was good for the boys particularly.”