The Stolen Year: How COVID Changed Children's Lives, and Where We Go Now

by Anya Kamenetz Narrated by Anya Kamenetz

Overview

An NPR education reporter shows how the last true social safety net-- the public school system--was decimated by the pandemic, and how years of short-sighted political decisions have failed to put our children first.

School has long meant much more than an education in America. 30 million children depend on free school meals. Schools are, statistically, the safest physical places for children to be. They are the best chance many children have at finding basics like eye exams, safe housing, mental health counseling, or simply a caring adult. Flawed, inequitable, underfunded, and segregated, they remain the most important engine of social mobility and the crucible of our democracy.

The cost of closing our schools for so long during COVID, made with good intentions, has not yet been fully reckoned with.*

In*The Stolen Year, NPR education reporter Anya Kamenetz shows that the roots of our crisis run far deeper than COVID. She follows families across the country as they lived through the pandemic. But she also dives deep into the political history that brought us to this point: Why we have no childcare system to speak of, why subsidies for families were cut to the bone, how children became the group most likely to live in poverty, how we overpolice and separate families of color, and how we are content to let the unpaid and underpaid labor of women, especially women of color and immigrants, stand in for a void of public and collective concern for children.**

Kamenetz makes the case that 2020 wasn't a lost year--it was taken from our children, by years of neglect and bad faith. We have failed to put them first.

The American Rescue Plan offers new tax benefits for families and new funding for schools. But if progress stops there, and we revert to cutting funding and laying off school staff, another crisis will surely come.*The Stolen Year*is a passionately argued and emotional story, but also a demand for recompense.

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2022 - AudioFile

Anya Kamenetz’s narration equally embraces nonfiction elements and hard-hitting stories of the losses that children experienced when Covid lockdowns prevented them from attending school. For many American kids, school is a critical social safety net. Kamenetz’s tone of authority reveals her years of experience as NPR’s education correspondent. She also provides compassionate snapshots of individual interview subjects, who give the audio depth. Her voice expresses the curiosity that led to the breadth of her research, and she continually emphasizes her passion for the plights of working mothers, low-income families, teachers, plugged-in children, and those suffering poor physical and/or mental health. Kamenetz connects with listeners, brings together multiple perspectives, and shares insights about the U.S. before, during, and after the pandemic. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

06/06/2022

Journalist Kamenetz (Generation Debt) delivers a compassionate study of how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted schoolchildren and their families. Drawing on interviews with children and parents across the U.S. and her own experiences as the mother of two young daughters, Kamenetz documents “high levels of chronic absence and disengagement from school” following the shift to remote learning in 2020, and reports that former secretary of education Betsy DeVos “diverted a disproportionate share of federal relief funds to private schools” during the pandemic, while resisting calls for the Department of Education to take the lead in directing schools how to safely reopen. Noting that U.S. public schools were closed for more than twice as long as those in the U.K. and China, Kamenetz cites evidence that the absence of America’s “most broadly accessible welfare institutions” caused food insecurity to double, even as many children gained weight due to a lack of exercise. She also claims that student-organized protests over the murder of George Floyd by police provided “catharsis, after a season of confinement and monotony,” and sketches how parents and teachers can foster children’s “posttraumatic growth.” Striking an expert balance between the big picture and intimate profiles of students, teachers, parents, and school officials, this is an astute and vital first draft of history. (Aug.)

From the Publisher

The better we understand our failures and successes of these past two years — as individuals, as members of our local communities and as a wider society — the more likely we will be to take effective action in the next crisis. Maybe, as a place to start, this book should be required reading for us all.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“[T]horoughly researched, unsparing and intimately detailed… [Kamenetz] also offers thought-provoking, clear-eyed insights into the way systems and people functioned, and did not function, during the pandemic.”—Washington Post

“[A] relentless account of ruptures in so many Americans’ lives, from mental health crises to hunger to academic failures and accidents…Kamenetz’s reach and aim as a reporter are admirable: She travels from San Francisco to Oklahoma to St. Louis to Washington, interviewing a racially and socioeconomically diverse group of parents, as well as dozens of experts, professionals and activists. She elegantly incorporates studies and data. Her prose is tight, smooth and swift.”—New York Times

“[A] sobering, frustrating, often heartbreaking book. It's also an essential read for anyone who lived through that time, and who wants to learn how to avoid a repeat of it in the future.”—Salon

“Kamenetz eloquently and humanely depicts the panic that reigned in every household, office, court and classroom… Tender and devastating, concise and sentimental, “The Stolen Year” draws upon Kamenetz’s identity as a mom and a journalist to reckon with what happened, what went wrong and how to move on.” —Early Learning Nation

“We still cannot know the cost of these terrible years on the younger generation, but with The Stolen Year, we can at least begin the reckoning.”—LitHub

“[W]ell-researched, enlightening… An insightful, educative treatise from a seasoned professional.”—Kirkus

"Striking an expert balance between the big picture and intimate profiles of students, teachers, parents, and school officials, this is an astute and vital first draft of history."—Publishers Weekly

“Kamenetz leaves no stone unturned in her extensive exploration of the vast problems children faced during the first year of the COVID pandemic… Although this focuses on her expertise in education, Kamenetz deftly navigates the cracks in many pre-pandemic systems, cracks that exploded at the onset in March 2020...Kamenetz’s feat will surely be followed up with additional studies for years to come. For now, it’s a great starting point for the discussion.”—Library Journal

"Anya Kamenetz tells powerful, compelling stories that knit together individual experiences of the pandemic into a larger picture of both loss and hope. The Stolen Year is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of America’s children, and thus the future of the country itself."—Anne Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America

"We have sorely needed an accounting of the extensive harm done to children by the coronavirus and by the decisions made in response to it by those in positions of authority in much of the country, which left children no say in the matter. We are fortunate that Kamenetz has stepped up to the task with this powerful, humane, and sadly necessary book."—Alec MacGillis, author of Fulfillment

"Kamenetz’s extraordinary reporting delivers an unflinching, humane, and historically grounded account of the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on American children. The Stolen Year not only bears witness to the true human cost of the pandemic but serves as a call to arms to provide families with what they need and deserve now."—Lisa Damour, bestselling author of Untangled and Under Pressure

"Truly remarkable. A deft, thoughtful, and comprehensive investigation into the toll of the pandemic, and the way America treats its children, from the privileged to the impoverished and everyone in between."—Jessica Lahey, bestselling author of The Gift of Failure and The Addiction Inoculation

“A tough book to read, a well-written and thoroughly researched story that repeatedly leads us to ask why better choices weren’t available, and to wonder if better choices will be available the next time.” —Peter Greene, Forbes

Library Journal

06/01/2022

Kamenetz leaves no stone unturned in her extensive exploration of the vast problems children faced during the first year of the COVID pandemic. The book features interviews with parents and children dealing with being an afterthought in many policies created to counter the virus. Kamenetz takes historical deep dives and makes numerous data points, covering everything from the failing programs of school lunches and childcare to the poorly handled crisis in the U.S. related to mental health care and treatments for children of all ages. Although this focuses on her expertise in education, Kamenetz deftly navigates the cracks in many pre-pandemic systems, cracks that exploded at the onset in March 2020. Ultimately, she argues, these failures will leave millions of children with avoidable adverse effects for years to come. This is not an optimistic book but certainly a comprehensive one. Kamenetz's feat will surely be followed up with additional studies for years to come. For now, it's a great starting point for the discussion. VERDICT Recommended for parenting and education-focused collections.—Halie Kerns

OCTOBER 2022 - AudioFile

Anya Kamenetz’s narration equally embraces nonfiction elements and hard-hitting stories of the losses that children experienced when Covid lockdowns prevented them from attending school. For many American kids, school is a critical social safety net. Kamenetz’s tone of authority reveals her years of experience as NPR’s education correspondent. She also provides compassionate snapshots of individual interview subjects, who give the audio depth. Her voice expresses the curiosity that led to the breadth of her research, and she continually emphasizes her passion for the plights of working mothers, low-income families, teachers, plugged-in children, and those suffering poor physical and/or mental health. Kamenetz connects with listeners, brings together multiple perspectives, and shares insights about the U.S. before, during, and after the pandemic. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2022-05-19
An account of the massive educational disruption caused by the pandemic.

Though Covid-19 hit everyone hard, Kamenetz, the lead digital education correspondent for NPR, focuses on its wide-reaching effects on children in this well-researched, enlightening book. The author goes into welcome depth on the consequences of a year without in-person schooling, chronicling her interviews with children who have health issues and compromised immune systems, those with special needs who function better with a regular routine, and those from low-income families who rely on the school lunch program. The parents are also an integral part of the book, and Kamenetz is sympathetic to their plights with lost jobs due to downsizing or the necessity of child care. Throughout, the author shares the small details of quotidian life, creating a crystal-clear picture of the extent to which the pandemic has affected children. During 2020 and 2021, countless children suffered greater hunger, had an indifference to schoolwork, and became fearful, depressed, anxious, and withdrawn. Their trauma equaled—or often exceeded—that of adults, but few received adequate assistance. Unfortunately, the author also shows how the trauma is not over for millions and that what they experienced during the height of the pandemic will haunt them for years. She is careful to note, however, that “not one of them is doomed.” After noting the ways that government, health, and education officials let children down, Kamenetz offers useful ideas on what areas must change, including an overhaul of the system that determines guidelines for special needs, placing more value on the work of caregivers, and revamping the entire welfare system. No one knows the long-term effects the pandemic will have on children, but Kamenetz gives readers areas to watch as time progresses and the pandemic waxes and wanes in the years to come.

An insightful, educative treatise from a seasoned professional.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176232592
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	08/23/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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