Pikachu is the costume that gets the loudest cheer at any Aussie school parade, so a Pokémon book week costume is one of the safest bets you can make for a confident kid. And yes, Pokémon counts — Scholastic has published dozens of Pokémon chapter books and readers, plus the long-running Pokémon Adventures manga, so a trainer costume is right at home on a Book Week dress-up day. Whether your...

If you're hunting for a Harry Potter Book Week costume that actually gets the nod from the teacher (and not the dreaded "is that meant to be a witch from a movie?" question), the secret is picking a Hogwarts house first and building the look around it. A black robe on its own reads as "generic wizard." A black robe with a red-and-gold scarf, round glasses and a tiny lightning...