Re: Drop Everything and Read Day (12 April)

On 2024-04-14 10:38:24 +0000, Ross Clark said:

Sorry, I guess it's too late for you to do this now. I am trying to catch up....
 It's the birthday of Beverly Cleary (1916-2021), a very popular (and long-lived!)

104, but not far off 105! I can't think of anyone else who lived that long and is famous for something other than longevity.

 American author of children's books.
 She wrote a series of books about a little girl named Ramona Quimby, and in one of them (published 1981), when Ramona is 8 years old, her teacher says to the class:
"...every day after lunch we are going to sit at our desks and read silently to ourselves any book we choose in the library."
And they didn't have to write a report on it!
The teacher called this "Drop Everything and Read" (DEAR).
 The "sustained silent reading" was not Cleary's invention, or even based on her own schooldays (though the Wiki article says that she did have problems with reading in the early stages). It was her children who went to schools where it was an established practice.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Cleary

--
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly in England until 1987.