Read Across Lawrence

Read Across Lawrence has merged with Booktoberfest
Please visit this link to learn more about our adult Community Read.

About Read Across Lawrence

Literature is the tie that binds. Once a year, Lawrence comes together as a community to read the same book and explore its major themes with discussions and interactive programs. Read Across Lawrence (RAL) promotes literacy, fosters community and provides common ground for intergenerational, cross-cultural and civic-minded educational discussions. It's also, to put it simply, a really fun and social way to get the most out of a book. Let's read together!

Broadening the audience — then rethinking it. In 2012, Lawrence Public Library expanded their RAL program to include a teen and kid selection. A variety of programs and events specific to these age groups ran parallel throughout Read Across Lawrence. In 2022, we shifted Read Across Larewnce back to an adults-only community read, using our annual Summer Reading Challenge as our youth-focused literacy initiative.

Past Selections

2022 | Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
2020 | The Round House by Louise Erdrich
2019 | Sourdough, opens a new window by Robin Sloan
2018 | Wonder, opens a new window by R.J. Palacio
2017 | In the Time of the Butterflies, opens a new window by Julia Alvarez
2016 | The Martian, opens a new window by Andy Weir
2015 | The Handmaid's Tale, opens a new window by Margaret Atwood
2014 | Housekeeping, opens a new window by Marilynne Robinson
2013 | The Worst Hard Time, opens a new window by Timothy Egan
2012 | Winter's Bone, opens a new window by Daniel Woodrell
2011 | To Kill A Mockingbird, opens a new window by Harper Lee
2010 | Dreams From My Father, opens a new window by Barack Obama | Kansas Reads
2009 | The Virgin of Small Plains, opens a new window by Nancy Pickard | Kansas Reads
2008 | Kansas Curiosities, opens a new window by Pam Grout
2007 | Revolutionary Heart, opens a new window by Diane Eickhoff
2006 | The Center of Everything, opens a new window by Laura Moriarty
2005 | Blue Horses Rush in, opens a new window by Luci Tapahanso













For more information about Read Across Lawrence contact:

Polli Kenn
she / her

Readers' Services Coordinator
785-843-3833 x132

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