Let’s celebrate booky boys like Callum on World Book Day

It is World Book Day tomorrow, so please spare a thought for all the parents who will open their child’s schoolbag at 9.23pm tonight and find a cheery note urging all pupils to “come as your favourite character”. Gah! “No, darling, you can’t go as Elsa from Frozen. It’s not a book.” “’Tis.”

My kids are too old for it now, but one year I stayed up half the night making a Pippi Longstocking outfit. In the morning, as I waited for praise, Milady pouted: “But, Mummy, you’ve forgotten Mr Nilsson, Pippi’s monkey!”

On another occasion, Small Boy got into the car wearing pyjamas and a dressing gown. When Himself and I said that wasn’t a suitable costume, he replied: “I’m going as a writer. You’re both writers and you never get dressed.”

Anyway, what better way to celebrate World Book Day than with three cheers for Callum Manning? The 13-year-old from South Shields started a book review page on Instagram. Some kids had other ideas. They set up a group chat to insult Cal’s page, and added him to it so he could see

Good books: creative costumes and, below, Allison’s daughter as Pippi Longstocking all the horrible comments. “I think that was the first time in a while I’ve actually cried,” said Callum.

It can be tough being a booky kid as I once was. Booky boys are rarer than unicorns. Fuming about the bullying of her brother, Callum’s sister, Ellis, wrote on Twitter: “Can’t believe how awful kids are.”

By Monday morning, Callum’s follower count had surpassed 230,000 and he had received messages of support and offers of titles to review from publishers and well-known authors. They were surprised to come across his recommendations for books by Jane Austen and George Orwell. “He’s a very, very clever kid,” said Callum’s mum, “he reads Crime and Punishment and stuff that probably your average 13-yearold wouldn’t be interested in.”

If Callum carries on as he is, one day he can name all his cruel, illiterate tormentors in a book of his own. Revenge is a dish best served in the pages of a bestselling novel.