Take a scroll down memory lane and check out some of this year's biggest stories
JANUARY
- James Frey signed a $2 million YA deal, and Sylvia Day got $10 million for her next erotica series.
- Roxane Gay kicked off a killer year with "Not Here To Make Friends: On the important of unlikable female protagonists."
- Kelly Jensen's revisiting of "The Reductive Approach to Contemporary YA" led to lots of interesting conversation, including a Twitter exchange with John Green.
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| Stephanie Kuehn at ALA |
- In YA Highway news: YA Highway joined Instagram; Sarah Enni was in attendance at ALA to cheer our girl Stephanie Kuehn, who won the William C. Morris Debut Award with her debut, Charm and Strange!
FEBRUARY
- Amtrak announced a residency program for writers.
- PW's analysis showed teens continued to like print books best.
- Discussion of the "John Green effect" continued to spark controversy, as did Hugh Howey's "Author Earnings Report."
- JK Rowling didn't actually say that Hermione should have married Harry.
- JK Rowling didn't actually say that Hermione should have married Harry.
- Susan Hanks, Debbie Reese, Teresa Runnels, and Tim Tingle collaborated on a list of the top 100 books by indigenous writers.
- Kate Brauning started the #YALoveStories hashtag.
- In the news: A study showed that diversity makes more money for Hollywood; Dylan Farrow shared her harrowing story of childhood abuse by Woody Allen; Philip Seymore Hoffman's drug overdose stunned the world.- In YA Highway news: Kate, Kirsten, and former Highwayer Michelle Schusterman started the #sensibleYA hashtag, inspired by Carrie Mesrobian's post about separating authors from their characters; we celebrated the release of Lee (Lanie) Bross's YA debut, Fates, and Stephanie Kuehn was named to the Carnegie Medal longlist!
MARCH
- Foz Meadows handily shredded one of the first anti-YA clickbait articles of the year.
- Christopher Myers looked at "The Apartheid of Children's Literature."
- Stacked hosted a fabulous "About the Girls" series, and Karen Jensen of Teen Librarian Toolbox launched the Sexual Violence in YA Literature project.
- Bloomsbury consolidated its children's imprints.
- The "Life in Publishing" Tumblr was deleted after its anonymous author was threatened with exposure for his/her pointed criticism.
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| Veronica Roth at the premiere of Divergent; Debra Driza, Amy Lukavics, Stephanie Kuehn, Kate Hart, Sarah Enni, Kirsten Hubbard and Sumayyah Daud in San Diego |
- In YA Highway news: Kirsten Hubbard was one of Epic Reads's "19 YA Authors to Follow on Instagram;" we celebrated the sale of Stephanie Kuehn's third novel, Delicate Monsters; and seven of us gathered in San Diego for the release of Highwayer Veronica Roth's blockbuster Divergent!! We did some serious shrieking when she appeared onscreen for her cameo -- and when we found out it was the #1 movie in America!
APRIL
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- The VIDA count found it still pays to be male in children's literature.
- John Green was one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People.
- In the news: 200 school girls were kidnapped in Nigeria; the Heartbleed bug terrified techies; the #CancelColbert hashtag happened; we survived another April Fool's Day on the internet.
- In YA Highway news: We were named one of Writer's Digest's 101 Best Websites for Writers; Sarah Enni hung out with former Highwayer Michelle Schusterman in New York; Stephanie Kuehn appeared at the LA Times Festival of Books; we celebrated the sale of Kirsten Hubbard's next YA, Cloudforest!
MAY
- The We Need Diverse Books campaign kicked off on May 1 with a 3 day call to action.
- Kirkus announced the creation of three new literary prizes.
- Amazon and Hachette started making public comments about their lengthy standoff; Amazon and Twitter debuted AmazonCart, allowing people to buy via tweet.
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| Sarah Enni and Veronica Roth in New York |
- First Book pledged to buy diverse books for distribution to low-income families.
- In YA Highway news: Veronica Roth moderated a BookCon panel about dystopian sci fi and spoke at Romantic Times in New Orleans; we celebrated the release of Debra Driza's Renegade, the sale of Kaitlin Ward's Bleeding Earth, and the reveal of Lee (Lanie) Bross's Chaos cover!
JUNE
- ALA's new policies forbade committee members from speaking publicly about books in award contention, causing Kelly Jensen to step down from the Printz committee.
- Stephen Colbert literally flipped Amazon the bird.
- The screen version of The Fault In Our Stars brought in $48.2 million on opening weekend.
- Angry Robot's YA imprint, Strange Chemistry, closed abruptly.
- Usborne Books decided to stop publishing titles "for boys" or "for girls."
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| Stephanie Kuehn and Debra Driza in California; Kristin Otts and Kate Hart in Colorado |
- In YA Highway news: We celebrated the release of Stephanie Kuehn's Complicit and Veronica Roth's Four, and we were happy to recognize excellent in the YA online community with our first ever YA Web Awards! Vee was named to Forbes's "100 Most Powerful Celebrities" list -- which explains why we were sad but understanding about losing her to probably-permanent hiatus. She's forever a Highwayer in our hearts!
JULY
- Amazon rolled out its Kindle Unlimited program.
- The kidlit world mourned the loss of Walter Dean Myers.
- Rather than deal with a challenge to emily danforth's The Miseducation of Cameron Post, a Delaware school board decided to kill the entire summer reading list.
- The Man Booker Prize longlist included Americans for the first time.
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| TR to BL: Sarah and Kate, Steph and Phoebe, Veronica and Kirsten, Kaitlin and Sarah, Steph and Sarah, former Highwayer Michelle Schusterman and Sarah |
- World Book Night suspended full operations.
- In YA Highway news: We celebrated the sale of my book, After the Fall, to FSG; Veronica Roth made an appearance at Comic Con and wrapped up her Four Tour with former Highwayer Phoebe North in Lansing; Phoebe also got together with Stephanie Kuehn at a Hudson Valley YA Society event; we were happy to reclaim Kristin Otts as a contributor; and Sarah Enni launched her amazing podcast, First Draft with Sarah Enni!
AUGUST
- Malorie Blackman, the UK Children's Laureate, faced an outpouring of abuse after advocating for more diverse kidlit, while We Need Diverse Books incorporated as an official nonprofit.
- Amazon asked its KDP authors to get involved in the Hachette dispute, while 900 authors took out a full-page anti-Amazon ad in the NYT; Amazon also announced a digital imprint partnership with Alloy Entertainment.
- JK Rowling sent a letter "from Dumbledore" to the survivor of a Texas shooting, and a new study showed that kids who read Harry Potter "are more likely to show tolerance towards gay people, immigrants, and refugees."
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| TL to BR: Sarah and Deb at CA panel; Sarah, Amy, and Kirsten in Arizona; Kirsten and Sarah at the Grand Canyon; Sarah and Deb in San Diego; Sarah and Steph at Raiders vs Seahawks; Kristin Otts and new husband Bryson! |
- GISHWHES irritated a lot of writers.
- In the news: Feminist Frequency's Anita Sarkeesian was run out of her home by threats from critics outraged by her critiques of video games; after the death of Robin Williams, trolls ran his daughter off of Twitter; one of the Steubenville rapists was allowed to rejoin the high school football team; the Spurs hired Becky Hammon as the first female assistant coach in the NBA; the federal government found Rikers Island has systematically violated the civil rights of teenage boys held there; Ferguson, Missouri police killed an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, sparking protests and conflicts that continued for the rest of the year.
- In YA Highway news: Sarah Enni's epic road trip took her to the hometowns of more Highwayers and a moderating gig at a panel including Debra Driza; Kristin Otts got married!
SEPTEMBER
- Not the greatest month to be a woman on the internet. Check out the Big News from September 26 and October 3 for details.
- A PW survey revealed women still make far less than men in publishing.
- Banned Books Week came with the usual banning attempts, and Kelly Jensen made the case for why "celebrating" is the wrong approach while Malinda Lo's analysis showed that "diverse books are disproportionately targeted for book challenges and censorship."
- YA sales were up 30%.
- The NYT "revamped" its bestseller lists.
- Margaret Atwood announced her next book won't be available for 100 years.
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| Sarah Enni and Kristin Halbrook enjoy a Sounders game in Seattle. |
OCTOBER
- Author Kathleen Hale admitted to stalking a Goodreads critic.
- Egmont Publishing announced it will be selling its US branch.
- John Grisham made some reprehensible comments about child p0rnography, sparking this brilliant response from Anne Ursu.
- A tourist got locked inside Waterstones and escaped with the help of Twitter.
- We Need Diverse Books announced a new grant and award program, The Walter Dean Myers Award.
- The kidlit community was unimpressed with the so-called "Percy Jackson Problem" (handily disemboweled here by Laura Ruby).
- Stephenie Meyer used her clout to support the careers of aspiring female filmmakers, partnering with Facebook, Lionsgate, and a whole host of notable women for 5 short films in the Twilight universe.
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| Steph with other panel members in Boston and Vegas |
- In YA Highway news: Stephanie Kuehn was busy with the Boston Book Festival, Vegas Valley Book Festival, and Kid Lit Con, and we were excited to reveal the covers of Kristin Halbrook's upcoming YA, Every Last Promise and Lee Bross's upcoming Tangled Webs!
NOVEMBER
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| Kirsten, Vee, Kristin H., Amy, Kate, and Kaitlin at Hawksbill Crag, Arkansas; other retreat shenanigans; Stephanie with fellow YALSA panelists; Veronica and Sarah at YALLFEST |
- Amazon and Hachette finally reached an agreement.
- Daniel Handler donated $110,000 to the We Need Diverse Books campaign after making a racist comment at the National Book Awards ceremony.
- In YA Highway news: The trailer for the big screen adaptation of former Highwayer Kody Keplinger's The DUFF was released; Sarah Enni put together another amazing set of Carpool Lane emails for NaNoWriMo; Stephanie Kuehn was part of YALSA's Young Adult Literature Symposium in Austin; and Sarah and Veronica Roth had a great time at YALLFEST after joining five more of us for an Ozark writing retreat in Arkansas.
DECEMBER
- ReedPOP and WeNeedDiverseBooks announced they are teaming up for two fantastic BookCon panels.
- The makers of YALLFEST announced a West Coast sister event called YALLWEST.
- Ron Charles looked at the complex value of "Best Books" lists in the wake of one excluded author's rant.
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| Sarah Enni and Kristin Halbrook with Claire Legrand |
IN MEMORIAM
Dr. Maya Angelou, author, actress, and poet
Amiri Baraka, poet
Norman Bridwell, author
Nancy Garden, author
Philip Seymore Hoffman, actor
Elizabeth Jane Howard, author
Daniel Keyes, author
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author
Peter Matthiessen, author
Walter Dean Myers, author
Pete Seeger, musician and author
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, author
Ned Vizzini, YA author
Robin Williams, actor and comedian
BEST OF YA HIGHWAY
As determined by me.
- "Long Haul Projects" by Leila Austin
- "I'm Still Here" by Sumayyah Daud
- "Cliffhangers in YA and TV: Joy, Agony, or Both?" by Debra Driza
- "Which Writing Retreat is Right For You?" by Sarah Enni (quiz!)
- "The Landscape of YA Lit: A State of the Union" by Kristin Halbrook
- "How to Keep Up Online Without Losing Your Mind, Part 2" by me
- "Things Non-Writers Say to YA Writers" by Kirsten Hubbard
- "Debut Year Reflections" by Stephanie Kuehn
- "Let It Go" by Amy Lukavics
- "The Art of Rest" by Kristin Otts
- A solid year of Road Trip Wednesdays from Kaitlin Ward
YEAR END LISTS
For ALL the lists: Largehearted Boy; Penguin RandomHouse
For ALL THE KIDLIT lists: Chicken Spaghetti
YA/Children's
- Air and Space: Best 2014 aviation and space-themed books for kids
- Amazon: Best YA 2014
- American Indians in Children's Literature: Best Books of 2014
- Audible: Best YA 2014
- Barnes and Noble: Must Read 2014 LGBTQ YA
- Book Riot: 10 2014 YA TBR
- Booklist: Books for Youth 2014
- The Boston Globe: Best YA 2014
- Buzzfeed: 17 Best YA
- Canadian Children's Book Centre: 2014 Award nominees
- The Casual Optimist: 50 great YA covers
- Diversity in YA: 2014 Gift Guide
- Entertainment Weekly: 2014 Book Awards
- Epic Reads: Book Shimmy Awards 2014
- Forever Young Adult: Best Books of 2014
- Goodreads Choice Awards 2014
- Guardian: Best Books for Kids 12 and Up
- Hornbook: Best Books 2014
- Hypable: Best Books of 2014
- Kirkus: Best YA Books 2014
- Los Angeles Times: Holiday Book Guide
- Mashable: Best Books of 2014
- National Book Award finalists
- New York Public Library: Best Books for Teens 2014
- New York Times: Notable Children's Books 2014
- NPR: Book Concierge
- Parade: Bestselling MG/YA authors pick their 2014 favorites
- Popcrush: Best YA 2014
- Powell's: Best YA 2014
- Publisher's Weekly: Best YA 2014
- Romantic Times: Award nominees (scroll down)
- School Library Journal:
- TAYSHAS 2015 list
- Time: Top 10 YA Books
- Wall Street Journal: Best Children's Books (scroll down)
- YA Book Prize: 2015 nominees
- YALSA: 2015 Morris nominees
Year End Round Ups and Analysis
- Malinda Lo
- Stacked: Best of 2014 Lists breakdown
Other Lists of Interest:
- Blogher: 2014 Women of the Year
- Book Riot: Best Books of 2014
- Booklist: Top of the List 2014
- Bookpage: Best Books 2014
- Brain Pickings: Best Books of 2014
- Buzzfeed: 28 Best Books by Women
- Costa Book Awards shortlist
- The Daily Beast: Best Books 2014
- Electric Literature: Why 2014 Was the Year of the Essay
- FiveThirtyEight: There Are Way Too Many Lists
- Flavorwire:
- The Millions: A Year in Reading
- New York Times:
- NPR: 50 Wonderful Things from 2014
- PW: Best Books 2014
- Time: 15 Most Influential Characters of 2014
- Tumblr:
- YouTube: Year in Review
MEMES AND OTHER RANDOM
Tumblr kept track, but here are a few highlights:
The Selfie Olympics kicked off the year.
Fangirl Quest's did some awesome "Screenframing."
Ladies Against Humanity made Cards Against Humanity even better.
A 4-year-old and her mom put all our wardrobes to shame.
One Star Book Reviews made us feel better, and Life on the Midlist said what we were all thinking.
Everyone got an extra hour in the ball pit.
Tim Howard saved (almost) everything.
And then there's this.
Weird Al sang about Word Crimes (and later apologized for committing one of his own).
Mallory Ortberg did a live reading of "Male Novelist Jokes."
The Ice Bucket Challenge took over the world.
And Bad Lip Reading continued to be hilarious.
And finally: If you're an adult who reads YA, congrats! You saved publishing this year.
Thus concludes my very last Field Trip Friday! Thank you so much for five fabulous years, and I hope you'll stick around in 2015 for Field Trips hosted by Stephanie, Sarah, Kristin H., and Kaitlin -- and for the Road Trip Wednesdays I'll be taking over.
Happy New Year!
*Photo credits: Sarah Enni, Stephanie Kuehn, Kirsten Hubbard, Kate Hart, Kristin Otts, Veronica Roth, First Draft podcast, and our own Instagram account.
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