D.E.A.R. stands for "Drop Everything and Read," a national celebration of reading designed to remind families to make reading a priority activity in their lives. This day is celebrated every year on April 12th for author Beverly Cleary's birthday.
Here in Australia it is the first day of our Easter holidays, so how apt that I am being given permission to read! I will. What a pleasure. The parents of the young students I teach have been to the library to borrow for the holidays so they will be reading too.
D.E.A.R in a classroom is such a good time. I love watching every child with their own book engaged in uninterrupted silent sustained reading. I also love setting up the strategy and timing the students each day until they truly can sustain reading for quite a time, say 15 minutes. Young children feel so proud of themselves.
Beverly Cleary, a children's librarian and the author of many books, including a series about Ramona Quimby and her sister, Beezus has this day named in her honour rightly so because as she says
“The discovery, when I was about eight years old, that I could actually read, and read with pleasure, was one of the most exciting moments of my life. From that moment on, as I read through the shelves of the library, I searched for, but was unable to find, the books I wanted to read most of all: books about the sort of children who lived in my neighbourhood, books that would make me laugh.”
Born in 1916, Beverly Cleary died in 2021 having made it to 104! Her books are no longer as popular as they were when I started teaching, but she has certainly left 'her mark' on the world of children's literature.
Find out more about her by reading her books, her memoir or the picture book biography by Vicky Conrad.
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