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Penn State Marathon Read

  • Past Reads
    • 2023: Arrivals: Borders and Beginnings
    • 2022: The Pursuit of Sustainability
    • 2021: Escape It All
    • 2020: Voices of Power in Women’s Activism
    • 2019: Myths, Legends, & Songs
    • 2018: Pages from 1968
    • 2017: First Books
    • 2016: The Political Imagination
    • 2015: Marathon of Madness
    • 2014: Banned Books
    • 2013: One Hundred Years of Solitude
    • 2012: Catch 22
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2024: Youth on Fire – Stories of Growing Up

Full bloom flowers. A woman looking at a broken shard of a mirror. People holding flowers in front of their faces. A boy being measured for his height against a plant stalk. A person holding up a mirror with flames reflected in it.

We need readers! Free t-shirts available. Sign up to read for 5 minutes (or longer) here.

WHAT: A free and public 12-hour marathon of reading. Food will be provided throughout the day

WHEN: Thursday, September 26 • 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

WHERE: Dewey Room (W043), Pattee Library

READINGS: House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, The Book of My Lives by Aleksander Hemon, Born a Crime: Stories from a South Africa Childhood by Trevor Noah, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, and the graphic novels Town Boy by Lat and Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani, as well as other texts

The period of adolescence and young adulthood is one of the more impactful times in a person’s life, and literature that taps into these experiences guides young people through turbulent times and reminds adults of the shedding of innocence young people experience globally every day. It has also been 35 years since the creation and signing of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international human rights treaty that led to significant changes in the treatment of children across a variety of areas. This event is free and open to the public.

Email jbueter@psu.edu to volunteer to staff the event.