1. Harry Potter got a new look. Scholastic reissued the U.S. trade paperback editions of the entire Harry Potter series with new cover art by acclaimed author/illustrator Kazu Kibuishi. And we revealed each of the stunning new covers on social media. Yep, we pinned, tweeted, and Instagramed our way through all seven covers. Check 'em out here.
2. A new education blog was born. Meet frizzle, our new blog all about education and the magic of learning. With a stacked guest-blogger lineup of experts and educators who weigh in on the latest in the education world, we think you guys are really going to like each other.
3. Usher showed us his shoes. And then he surprised hundreds of teen artists who—
along with their parents and teachers–were gathered in Carnegie Hall for the 2013 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards ceremony. Usher was our surprise guest at this year's event, joining Zac Posen, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Terrace Howard to celebrate the amazing young artists. Right before he took the stage (and teen hysteria ensued shortly after), he gave us a sneak peak at his kicks.
4. An artist "popped Up" in our front window. At the end of September, Scholastic Art & Writing Awards alumn Timothy H. Lee set up shop in our front window at Scholastic's headquarters in SoHo for a week-long residency. Timothy and the @ArtandWriting social team documented the whole thing on Twitter and Instagram. Passersby (Nick Cannon included!) got to watch him work in real time on his incredible sculptures. Watch this video to learn more about the residency.
5. Tim Gunn "Made it Work." So did Diane Von Furstenberg and three aspiring fashion designers, who joined us for a classroom webcast this Fall called "Math @ Work." Teachers from across the country tuned in to the webcast with their students, sending us pictures along the way! Needless to say, #MathAtWork was trendy and trending that day. (Sorry, I had to.)
6. #IReadYA went viral. This was one for our social media record books. Our This is Teen team launched a hugely successful campaign this year all around the spine-tingling, heart-throbbing genre that is YA. They used social to share author videos, host contests and giveaways, and really escalate the genre to another level of awesomeness.
7. Scholastic Reading Club got a new name and a new look. Big news broke this year for "Book Clubs" subscribers: "Book Clubs" became "Reading Club" and the program started offering flyers by Grade Level. The new flyers feature choices for all kinds of readers—kids reading above and below grade level. The Reading Club team launched the new campaign on social media, sharing flyer samples, book recs, and support for customers.
8. Kids set an epic new reading world record in reading. As a part of the Scholastic Summer Challenge, kids logged a total of 176,438,473 minutes throughout the summer months. We documented the big news across all of our social media platforms using #summerreading.
9. We launched five (yes, five) new ed tech programs. They are: MATH 180™, iRead™, System 44® Next Generation, READ 180® on the iPad, and Common Core Code X™, and we're really proud of them. Social media was a huge vehicle for getting the word out to teachers, administrators, and parents. You can learn more about the new products here.
10. 13 illustrators dazzled us with their work. As a part of our Art of Read Every Day campaign, we asked some of our favorite children's book illustrators (Dav Pilkey, Yuyi Morales, Jeff Kinney, Erin Stead, and more) to show us what "Read Every Day" means to them. They captured our hearts with their artistic interpretations, which we've been sharing on social every day (#readeveryday) since September. You can view the full collection here.
11. We topped USA Today’s 20th anniversary bestseller lists in two eras. The Harry Potter series and The Hunger Games series were undoubtedly favorites for generations of readers—those from the bookstore generation and the ebook generation.
12. We had the scariest Halloween ever. Not only did we open NASDAQ with Goosebumps, R.L. Stine himself took over our social media accounts, frightening fans with answers to their most pressing questions.
13. FLOTUS tweeted at us. And our hearts skipped a beat. The First Lady invited Scholastic Kid Reporters to a Q&A at The White House, where she and Jill Biden talked about education, the environment, and other hot topics.
14. We released a new study on kids' reading habits in the digital age. The bi-annual Kids and Family Reading Report surveys parents and kids on their reading preferences and behavior. This year, we released the data on Facebook and Pinterest, with our parenting and reading experts Maggie McGuire and Francie Alexander chatting live to respond to the data.
15. We caught Catching Fire fever. Let's face it, it was contagious. When the film premiered in November, #CatchingFire was the most talked-about book on social during that month. And everywhere you looked—from the subway to magazine stands to the makeup counter to the red carpet to your Twitter feed—Katniss, bow in hand, stared back. Our Trade marketing team did a phenomenal job making the book ubiquitous on social media.
Thanks for a great year, everyone. #HappyHolidays
