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

by Anya Kamenetz

An NPR education reporter shows how the pandemic disrupted children’s lives—and how our country has nearly always failed to put our children first

The onset of COVID broke a 150-year social contract between America and its children. Tens of millions of students lost what little support they had from the government—not just school but food, heat, and physical and emotional safety. The cost was enormous.

But this crisis began much earlier than 2020. In The Stolen Year , Anya Kamenetz exposes a long-running indifference to the plight of children and families in American life and calls for a reckoning.

She follows families across the country as they live through the pandemic, facing loss and a boy with autism in San Francisco who gains a foster brother and a Hispanic family in Texas that loses a member to COVID, and finds solace when they need it most. Kamenetz also recounts the history that brought us to this how we thrust children and caregivers into poverty, how we over-police families of color, how we rely on mothers instead of infrastructure. And how our government, in failing to support our children through this tumultuous time, has stolen years of their lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Education, Parenting, Sociology, Health, Audiobook, Psychology

352 pages, Hardcover

First published August 23, 2022

About the author

Anya is endlessly curious about learning and the future.

Her forthcoming book, The Art of Screen Time (PublicAffairs, 2018) is the first, essential, don’t-panic guide to kids, parents, and screens. You can preorder it now!

Generation Debt (Riverhead, 2006), dealt with youth economics and politics; DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education (Chelsea Green, 2010), investigated innovations to address the crises in cost, access, and quality in higher education. The Test (PublicAffairs, 2015), is about the past, present and future of testing in American schools.

Learning, Freedom and the Web, The Edupunks’ Guide, and the Edupunks’ Atlas are her free web projects about self-directed, web-enabled learning.

Anya is the lead digital education correspondent for NPR. Her team’s blog is at NPR.org/ed. Previously she covered technology, innovation, sustainability and social entrepreneurship for five years as a staff writer for Fast Company magazine. She’s contributed to The Village Voice, The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Slate, and O, the Oprah Magazine.

She was named a 2010 Game Changer in Education by the Huffington Post and won 2009, 2010, and 2015 National Awards from the Education Writers Association. NPR Ed won a 2017 Edward R. Murrow award for Innovation from the Radio Television Digital News Association.

She appears in the documentaries Generation Next (2006), Default: A Student Loan Documentary (2011), both shown on PBS, and Ivory Tower, distributed by Participant Media.

Anya grew up in Louisiana, in a family of writers and mystics, and graduated from Yale University in 2002. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

So. I had a lot of issues with this book, really the premise, argument of it.

I think it is rich to write about the failures of COVID as if:

1. It wasn’t sudden and scary and a lot wasn’t known in MARCH TWENTY TWENTY,
2. Kids were the only ones affected by it,
3. Teachers/schools should’ve (and frankly could’ve) done more than parents for kids, and
4. Blaming everything wrong with or regarding kids “post COVID” (is that a thing?! Are we post COVID?! Idk?!) on COVID cause literally no.

I largely disagree with the idea that 2020 (and 2021 largely) were stolen from kids, as if anyone has advance knowledge and warning and were intentionally and deliberately seeking to hurt children. The argument that American society is largely not built for children and families is sufficient without positing the pandemic as some unique event that solely and singularly harmed children and families (primarily mothers) by extension.

I was a teacher before, during and a bit “after” COVID and I very much so resent discussions around schools and COVID that don’t respect the very real concerns teachers had, and instead posit teacher concerns as being the opposite of what was in the best interest of kids. Remind me how schools full of children run without adults???

There were illuminating parts, such as discussions around the history of childcare, welfare and child services.

[Juli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a painful but important topic to read about. Very well written I couldn't put it down.

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't love the very informal style this book was written in but the content exceeded my expectations. At times the segments are a little all over the place and veer away from the specificities of the impacts of COVID-19 on children, but Kamenetz's writing on the child welfare system and the disproportionate impact the pandemic had on mothers were both very clear eyed and much more forceful than I was expecting them to be. I also appreciated the historical context she provided to each section as well as the experiences of the families she followed.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone must read this book. The pandemic was difficult for all, but especially for kids. While reading The Stolen Year you will join Anya on a journey meeting different families and children as she uncovers the affects the pandemic has had on our youth and what it means for their future. The Stolen Year is a compelling, well-written book you won’t be able to put down. Highly recommend!

[Caitlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book as an educator because I was truly hoping that it would provide some insights into the effects of COVID on education and a direction to consider in order to mitigate some of these effects. I got neither. Kamenetz spends most of the book describing the same types of families, i.e., single-parent, low-income, immigrant, foster care, large, special needs, etc., that all authors and studies love to discuss along with the same issues of inequality, discrimination, poverty, etc. While all of these issues may have been exacerbated by COVID, none of them were caused by the pandemic. This means the first part of her title, "How COVID Changed' Children's Lives" was never discussed. She then proceeds to insist a possible solution is a universal income and national policies that provide assistance and money to low-income families. This is not a viable solution. People choose to have children. Not everyone can have children, even if they want them. It is not the responsibility of people who do not have children to support families through tax dollars. Parenthood is a choice - make it responsibly and have a size family that you can support. Aside from the idea of a universal income, Kamenetz never provides inside to the "Where We Go Now" portion of her title. I would also argue that since she focused on a narrow and specialized set of families and circumstances and ignored the middle class and upper class, she never fully discussed all children. In short, her book has nothing to do with COVID and everything to do with the same tired arguments surrounding education that never offer solutions.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is maybe like a 3.5 rounded to a 4 because of content and what I learned but boy did it take me a while to get through. I think part of that was because it was a little chaotic at times. Part of that was also because fiction grabs a hold of me tighter than non-fiction a lot of times :) But really, it was fascinating and sad and maddening to learn about the history of some of how we got here in education and MADDENING to remember the quotes of that former guy as the pandemic started and throughout. This book did a good job at shoving in your face how utterly bad OUR government failed when it came to education while other governments and countries did not. And that, again, is maddening and sad. From being behind academically to experiencing mental health crises, our children have and are experiencing a lot and the book did a decent job showing that and showing what they've already been experiencing, like HOW LONG kids wait for psychiatric care. My god. And the difference in progress of learning and social development during Covid (and without) those with access and money have to things like learning pods than those without access and money.

Did it do everything right? No. Did it give concrete, absolute answers on where we should go from here? No. Did it give suggestions? Some. Are they feasible? Do you know where we live?

[Kaitlin Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m giving this 4 stars based on the subject matter only. The organization is so chaotic, the writing style is strange, and the writing itself is mediocre. However, I learned SO much reading this book.

[Ray Faure · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guy wrenching

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that will have me standing on the mountain and singing out the necessity for every educator and parent to get their own copy and start reading. I hope they will read the whole thing. I couldn't put it down. It's meaty material and could easily function as a course read for college students. But it is also very engaging and the average concerned parent and every single teacher will find it very readable and relatable.
The structure of the book is chronological, but also divided by topic so it isn't impossible to go straight to the chapter that is most crucial to the individual reader. It is an eye opener and I hope that it will be the impetus for educators and parents to put their heads together to evoke change in our education system. Solutions, yes, but also the genuine change that is so sorely needed as evidenced by this book.

Kudos to the author for all the hard work of researching and compiling it all into a highly useful book for anyone who cares about the children of our nation.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It's a winner!

[Shana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. Uneven. Needed more of where we go now and more solutions. We all just lived this so though her reporting is excellent, not much new here and more ranting without purpose. She does recognize her privilege and shows gratitude for her helpers and situation.
The childcare crisis is such an important issue and the uneven impact of loss of learning so great I would have liked more organization and analysis of the stories shared.

[Jennifer Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a moving, enraging, powerful, and much needed look at how the COVID 19 pandemic--and responses to it--upended children's lives in the US, especially those from the most vulnerable backgrounds.


Many thanks to PublicAffairs and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Megan Uy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think what will stick with me most is not so much the way our governments—local, state, and federal—and our society failed to respond adequately to the needs of children during the pandemic, but that our governments and our society already fails our children…and then we had a pandemic.

[vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book makes me want to read more about the history of education. I was fascinated by the historical tidbits like pointing out that the elderly used to be the most likely segment of the population to live in poverty but now it’s children; how many people, including “lean in” leaders are part of the reason we don’t view childcare as the work that it is, worthy of pay; how we separate families most commonly now due to neglect (i.e poverty) often reported in school. I loved the one big section that looked into this seeming hierarchy of childcare: babysitters -> nannies/au pairs -> early childhood workers in daycares -> teachers. I find this fascinating as a professional myself, always carving my own space where I demand extra $$ for my Master’s degree. But for all this fighting, at the end of the day, caring for children is an overly gendered profession that requires skill, incredible expertise, patience, and love. Every person listed above deserves to be paid more. The less successful aspect of this book was the organization of the text. It reads like multiple NPR pieces put together at times, which makes it feel clunky. It was sometimes hard to follow the multitude of families Kamenetz is writing about.

[RSter · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This is an accessible book with many good points regarding how children in particular suffered during the COVID pandemic. That being said, I think each chapter (like Hunger, Mental Health, Childcare) could be its own book. Also, it loses a half star for me for the line "Maybe [teachers] did more than we should have asked of them." They have been doing more since before the pandemic!

[Courtney (Campbell_Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this about education and the history of education. One of the families interviewed throughout the book is from the same state as me (Oklahoma) so it was awesome hearing from a fellow Okie mom.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3.5 ⭐️, but I wanted to round up.

[Muzna Al Hooti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book hoping to get some insight that can be applicable to our context. However, this book is specific to the US demographics and politics. I enjoyed the read, but not sure how the information is relevant to us, unless of course I use it for research purposes.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I have read this year. Both a history of the pandemic’s influence on children’s lives and a primer on social conditions and government policies in the United States and their historic effects on children’s lives. Approachable, insightful, empathetic, Kamenetz does a wonderful job presenting a difficult subject.

[Sari · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Stolen Year surprised me with the depth and breadth of the author’s examination of the subject of the education our society provides its children. Well worth reading.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for a book club at my nonprofit youth development workplace. This book was difficult because the subject matter is important and there are really interesting points made and context given, but I was annoyed by some fundamental flaws. The author is a journalist, and the book is written very much like a piece of long-form journalism, which is fine but in this format feels clunky and disjointed and incomplete in places. The author also has a very clear opinion and writes that way, I was expecting it to be more purely reporting/analysis. To that end, the historical and societal asides at times felt cherry-picked to support her opinions. I also hate when nonfiction books don’t include the endnotes in the book itself.

There is good information here, and I ultimately agree with the author’s end summary that we need to overhaul our political and societal institutions to better meet the needs of children. And that the whole experience was incredibly difficult, even more so for marginalized youth and their families, and that we could have done more. I don’t agree however that decisions made particularly in the first year of COVID were as clear cut as she makes them out to be. And if this book were solely a snapshot in time for those first years it would be one thing, but it seems like she wants it to be a fairly definitive look at the results of shutdowns etc on kids, and I just don’t think that we have quite enough distance or research to know that yet. Definitely spurred some good and meaningful discussion with my coworkers, which is a plus.

[Matthew Cory · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mess of contradictory conclusions.

This book was very informative and thoroughly researched but it left me confused by its conclusions. Examples:

- The teachers unions were the ones who pushed to keep schools closed, but let's not blame them
- The federal government did a TERRIBLE job with kids and the pandemic, so in the future we need to give more power to the Department of Education
- COVID very rarely kills kids and long-COVID isn't really a thing, but what a relief it was when the vaccine was approved for 5-12 year olds
- Trump was not on the kids' side during this crisis. By the way, here are all these quotes from Trump saying we need to re-open the schools

It's almost like Kamenetz wanted to say certain things but then her editor, publisher, or employer (NPR) stepped in and said "NO, you can't say that." If that's the case, I wish Kamenetz had stood up more for herself.

There were some positives. The book really made me think, especially the Mothers and Others chapter. Although even there, she states that the federal government and corporations did a TERRIBLE job during this pandemic...so let's put the primary blame on stay-at-home Dads. Baffling.

[Marci Alboher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anya Kamenetz is a rigorous reporter and a beautiful storyteller and she combines those two spectacularly in this important work. It's a recounting of events so fresh in our minds, but none of us could be everywhere in this country -- and somehow Kamenetz manages to do that, bringing to life children and families from a wide array of backgrounds and communities. She exposes deep inequities in our educational system and beyond -- I would love to see this book delivered to every member of Congress, every city official, and every book club living room!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and incredibly well-researched, although I took it out hoping it would give practical insight on helping children negatively impacted by the pandemic (which, I mean, is almost all of them). As a teacher, that’s a huge part of what we’ve been talking about, and going into this school year, where none of my students will remember a pre-Covid era, I wanted the additional insight. This book turned out to be more political than practical. . . but it felt extremely important nonetheless.

[Lisa Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anya is a masterful reporter and storyteller, and her documentation of the lasting impact of Covid on our kids is essential reading. American society was already quite family-unfriendly, and the events of the last couple of years really laid this bare. Kamenetz's book is persuasive and compelling, underscoring that we need to do better for our kids.

[Cara Agerstrand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and important book that everyone needs to read. It's imperative that we understand impact of the pandemic on children, both in the immediate and in the future. This moving and captivating book will help us do just that.

[Crystal Cumbee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with how to rate this. It’s more than a 3, but not a 4.

I was a teacher during Covid. She makes some valid points, especially from the schooling aspect. She attempted to show how difficult public educators had it. She focused on how hard it was for many families to do virtual schooling and the levels of disengagement and skills gaps that became worse during lockdown. I appreciated her framing of working class people feeling lost, scared, broke etc….because many people were out of work. In particular, her mentions about child abuse and neglect rates is a sad subject, but it’s true they were higher during lockdown. Those aspects I liked.

However, many of her points lacked actual evidence beyond just saying it. (I tried finding stats and facts she mentions and had a hard time finding several of them.) It’s written in a very biased manner too; everything IS going to look skewed when you look at it from one direction. The fact is we were all in uncharted territory and doing the best we could. It’s easy to look back and say oh we should’ve done XYZ. When we were in the thick of it, education officials were having to make decisions that would affects thousands of children and teachers. Was it a mess? Yes! Again, I was in public education during Covid. It was an absolute nightmare and every day something changed with protocols to “keep us safe.” But, I think one aspect severely lacking in the book is the true mental toll it took on educators. She discusses how it was tough, but then immediately launches into the political aspect and using snippets of real stories to cherry pick parts to support what she wants to say, instead of the total picture. That’s how every chapter was. It came off less caring about kids and teachers and more bashing administration (state and federal) making choices.

Like I said, I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it.

[Anna Snader · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

This book made me deeply sad.
In so many ways, the pandemic felt like ages ago,but also, like yesterday. Everything about time now feels jumbled and warped, but reading this book plunged me back into my most challenging and depressing adolescent years. I can’t express how hard it was to relive that time through this book.

This book also exposed me to different areas of the pandemic that didn’t directly impact me but that drastically impacted so many others: special education, hunger, etc. One of my teachers wrote an opinion article about how much schools provide beyond education, and I really appreciated knowing that. Similarly, I was glad to know more about those aspects in-depth after reading this too.

Beyond the pandemic, I think a lot about the aftermath, and how schools should have addressed COVID when we returned. Not many people even stopped to acknowledge that our lives had shifted so unpredictability, that we were very behind educationally and emotionally, and that we were still suffering. The teachers who did address this hurt were one-of-a-kind. We need more people who see us and our experiences.

My main critiques of the book were just related to formatting. I didn’t like how journalistic the writing was and that there were so many headings. That made the writing feel very choppy.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the time of the Covid lockdown I did not understand the kid aspect (still don't have kids but that's not the point). I knew that kids were out of school due to the shutdowns, but other than that I did not know much else. This book really added some insight as to what they, and their caretakers (parents/grandparents/etc.) had to go through. I did not realize how tough they had it. I had read studies about their poor school performance and their mental health struggles, but I did not understand the depth of it. This author really got at the heart of some students lives and how school closures turned out to be a bad thing for some of them. Not all kids were lucky enough to stay at home with supportive, positive families. For some kids, school is a safe space, a lifeline, that helps them if they're families cannot provide meals, sometimes a lifeline from traumatic experiences they may have at home. Then it also got me thinking at how easily we take the internet for granted. It's such a common thing for so many people, that it's easy to forget or not even think about people who do not have access which made the whole remote learning thing even more difficult. This book really put things into perspective on things I had not considered during the whole Pandemic thing.

[Owlish · Rating 5 out of 5]

"James Madison's ideal, which you still hear repeated today, is that, instead of directly reducing poverty, we should invest public money in education--thus empowering individuals through opportunity, or in his words, "preventing the existence of the poor." But there are diminishing returns to this approach. Rampant child poverty undermines the job of schools." p. 39

"Before the pandemic, average annual public spending on early childhood care across rich countries was $14,436 per child. In the US it was $500...The average cost of center-based care doubled from 1999 to 2019." p. 70

"One in four children placed in foster care is there for neglect, which typically means simple poverty." p. 210

"We failed children in three important ways. You know, first and foremost, that we have done a terrible job containing this pandemic. Secondly, that we closed schools summarily and abruptly without any good plan about how to transition to distance learning and without adequate infrastructure for so many kids. And third, that the moment we closed schools, we didn't immediately start planning about how to reopen them." p. 232

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, it's a book about how COVID affected kids, in particular how the school lockdown affected kids. Short version: it really sucked for kids. In particular, it was bad in the US because we use schools not just as a center for education, but also as a de facto social service program (such as free lunches). So the lockdown extra-affected kids in their most formative years.

OK, all true - but I could've used some greater acknowledgement of how everyone was largely flying blind at this time, and how damn scary things were. Heck, for a while it wasn't even really clear how the damn thing was transmitted. As Kamenetz notes, kids were less suspectiable to the 'VID than adults, but the kids can bring it home ot adults. Ultimately, Kamenetz extensively notes the downside for kids in the pandemic, while largely glossing over the whys of it, the unknowns of the time, and the trade-offs at play.

Her best point is that the schools were locked down too damn long. OK, but most of the book was on the earlier periods of the lockdown, when pretty much the entire world was locked down.

Good book, but also a frustrating book.