Public schools across the U.S. banned nearly 12,000 books over the past year—the highest total recorded since PEN America began tracking removals five years ago. The removals affected 7,370 individual works, with over 4,500 titles appearing on ban lists for the first time.
The free expression organization's new study, "Banned in the USA," catalogued everything from 19th-century classics like "Jane Eyre" to contemporary manga such as Sui Ishida's "Tokyo Ghoul." Stephen King was the author most frequently targeted for the second consecutive year, with his books removed 312 times. "The Shining" and "The Green Mile" were among the affected titles.
Patricia McCormick's "Sold," a novel about a girl trafficked into sexual slavery, was the single most banned title with 25 documented removals. Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," Laurie Halse Anderson's "Speak," and Ellen Hopkins' "Crank" also faced frequent challenges.
Florida and Texas have led the removals, with lawmakers and conservative activists in both states pushing aggressively for books to be pulled from school libraries and classrooms. The two states have passed restrictive legislation targeting educational materials.
School district administrators are increasingly using artificial intelligence tools to identify books for removal. The most common reasons cited for challenges remain themes of race, racism, sexuality and gender identity.
PEN America noted that "Book bans impede the freedom to read, cutting students' access to a diversity of views, voices, perspectives, and literature they deserve to encounter."
The report arrives during Banned Books Week, an annual observance highlighting censorship efforts. Both PEN America and the American Library Association have documented a surge in book bans since the early 2020s, though they count removals differently. PEN counts books removed even temporarily as bans, while the ALA counts only permanent withdrawals. The ALA's April report documented approximately 5,600 instances during the previous year.
