The school year for Penza schoolchildren began with the literary quest 'Journey with the Classics'. Children of various ages completed challenges in the exhibition 'Penza Land — to Russian Literature', in the hall 'From Blok to Blog', and at the new exhibition 'Shchelykovo — a Source of Inspiration' dedicated to A. N. Ostrovsky. In the museum's Literary Salon, high school students took part in a quiz timed to the 275th anniversary of A. N. Radishchev.\r\n\r\n\r\n
At the main exhibition they were to complete tasks set by a cavalier in a 19th-century costume, who taught them to write with pen and ink, play the parlor game 'Biryulki', and invited them to guess what was hidden in carved caskets.\r\nIn the museum hall 'From Blog to Blog' a typist appeared before the schoolchildren. She shared with the children interesting facts from the biographies of well-known Silver Age writers and poets whose fates were intertwined with Penza, invited them to solve literary puzzles and find books in foreign languages.\r\nAt the new exhibition 'Shchelykovo — a Source of Inspiration' a museum specialist told the young guests about the estate inextricably linked with the personality and work of the great national playwright Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, as well as about his hobbies. The pupils solved rebuses and examined memorial items from the collections of the Shchelykovo memorial and natural museum-reserve, information about which helped them pass challenge after challenge.\r\nAs a result, each group of schoolchildren was able to collect letters from which they formed the key phrase of the literary quest-tour.\r\n\r\n\r\n
Alongside the museum tours, the schoolchildren took a walking tour of Cathedral Square 'In the Heart of Old Penza' and a gentry promenade 'Under the Monograms in Old Penza'.
In total, on the first day of the new school year, the Penza Literary Museum was visited by 214 schoolchildren.
