It’s D.E.A.R. Day!

Happy birthday to Beverly Cleary, who turns 90 today! It’s also D.E.A.R. Day (Drop Everything and Read Day), for which Cleary’s dear Ramona Quimby is official spokesperson. (In Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Ramona takes part in a D.E.A.R. program in school.) Sponsors of the day, intended “to remind and encourage families to make reading together on a daily basis a family priority,” include the NEA, the NPTA, the ALA’s Association for Library Service to Children, Reading Rockets and HarperCollins Children’s Books.