what books were banned in 2022

These Were the Most Banned Books in 2022

All the most banned books of 2022, the year with the most book bans in two decades , were challenged for allegedly containing “sexually explicit” material, according to the American Library Association.

The library association, which tracks book challenges annually, recorded challenges to 2,571 unique titles, up from 1,858 that were challenged in 2021. These books ranged in genre from young adult fiction to memoirs, and from graphic novels to books about teen health.

Meanwhile, PEN America, a free speech advocacy organization that also tracks book bans, releases its data every six months.

The two organizations each release their own lists of the top banned books. PEN’s recently released list includes the most frequently banned books from July to December 2022, whereas ALA’s list is the most banned books for the entirety of 2022.

Based on recently released data tracking book bans and challenges from July to December 2022, PEN found book challenges increased by 28 percent in the last six months of 2022 compared to the first part of that year. ALA found a much bigger percentage change, from 729 challenges in 2021 to 1,269 in 2022, which is an increase in challenges of 74 percent from 2021 to 2022.

In 2022, a short list of books accounted for a large number of bans, similar to last year. For the second year in a row, Gender Queer: A Memoir , by Maia Kobabe remained the most banned book of the year, with 15 bans just in the last six months of 2022, according to PEN America. The graphic novel details the author’s experience of being nonbinary and asexual. It has been banned for LGBTQ+ content and claims that it’s sexually explicit, according to the ALA.

Some new books featuring LGBTQ+ stories and experiences also appear on the most banned books lists last year. Flamer, a semi-autobiographical graphic novel by Mike Curato, tied with Kobabe’s Gender Queer for the most banned book from July to December 2022, according to PEN America’s list. It tells the story of a boy who is bullied at camp for his appearance and for acting in a manner considered stereotypical of gay men. This Book is Gay , a book with firsthand accounts of growing up LGBTQ+, also made both lists.

A comparison of ALA and PEN’s most banned books reveals some frequently banned books in common, but several books that were banned often last school year aren’t on PEN America’s list for fall 2022, such as All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, which documents the author’s experiences growing up a queer Black man, and Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez, a novel about a teenage love affair between a Mexican-American girl and a Black boy in New London, Texas, leading up to the 1937 New London School explosion.

That’s because these books may have already been removed from school libraries, or librarians stopped ordering them based on the challenges last year or earlier this year, according to PEN America.

All Boys Aren’t Blue , for example, was banned in 29 districts in 2021, and last year the book was been banned in nine. Out of Darkness was banned in 24 districts in 2021, and in the fall of 2022, it was only challenged or banned seven times.

Here are the lists of banned books, according to each organization:

American Library Association's List (January to December 2022)

1. Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe 2. All Boys Aren’t Blue , by George M Johnson 3. The Bluest Eye , by Toni Morrison 4. Flamer , by Mike Curato 5. Looking for Alaska , by John Green 5. The Perks of Being A Wallflower , by Stephen Chbosky 7. Lawn Boy , by Jonathan Evison 8. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian , by Sherman Alexie 9. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez 10. A Court of Mist and Fury , by Sarah J. Maas 10. Crank , by Ellen Hopkins 10. Me and Earl and The Dying Girl , by Jesse Andrews 10. This Book is Gay , by Juno Dawson

PEN America's List (July to December 2022)

1. Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe 2. Flamer, by Mike Curato 3. Tricks, by Ellen Hopkins 4. The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel, by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault 5. Crank , by Ellen Hopkins 6. Sold, by Patricia McCormick 6. Push , by Sapphire 6. A Court of Mist and Fury , by Sarah J. Maas 9. This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson 10. The Bluest Eye , by Toni Morrison 10. Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur

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The 15 most banned books in America this school year

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The recent surge in book bans in U.S. school districts and libraries is the latest front in a long-running battle that has swept up even literary masterpieces of John Steinbeck, J.D. Salinger and Toni Morrison.

But the dramatically increasing censorship attempts have evolved, says Allison Lee, Los Angeles director of PEN America , a century-old writers organization that works to defend freedom of expression.

Prior to the current wave, communities usually banned books on a case-by-case basis, often in response to complaints about violent or sexual content. Now, Lee says, “large swaths of books, sometimes even entire school or classroom libraries are being removed.” Many activists and politicians object to an entire genre of books that deal with LGBTQ+ topics or issues. Other targeted books deal with race.

The American Library Assn. reports that in 2022 a record 1,269 demands were made to restrict or ban books and other materials in schools and libraries — up from 156 demands in 2020.

Here are 15 books PEN America says were most frequently banned from July 2021 through the first part of the 2022-23 school year.

1. “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe. This bestselling 2019 autobiography in graphic novel format has been praised for its honest, open discussion of what it’s like to be a nonbinary person. It also has been attacked for its frank depiction of sexual behavior, as Times columnist Robin Abcarian wrote in 2022 . The debut book by a Santa Rosa illustrator, “ Gender Queer ” has become the most banned book in America, a target of school boards, conservative candidates, preachers and parental groups who condemned it as pornography aimed at impressionable children. (56 bans; 150 challenges, according to the ALA )

Orlando, Florida-April 11, 2023-J. Marie Bailey, a former teacher with the Orange County public schools, speaks up for freedom of speech and against book banning and repression of LGBTQ students. At right is Will Larkins, age 18, right (in pink top) who is a senior at Winter Park High School in Florida. Students, teachers, parents, and other citizens attend a Orange County school board meeting in Orlando, Florida on April 11, 2023, to voice their concerns regarding the move by the school boards and the Florida legislature to remove books from school library shelves and limit education on race and LGBTQ issues. The Freedom to Read Project is battling Gov. DeSantis and highly organized and well-funded organizations like Moms 4 Liberty and the Florida Citizens Alliance. Parents, teachers and students pushing back against aggressive moves by school boards and the Florida legislature to remove books from library shelves and limit education on race and LGBTQ issues. Stephana Ferrell and Jen Cousins (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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2. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson . In a recent discussion at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books , Johnson recalled that as a young Black queer person, they never saw themselves in any of the books they read. That led Johnson to write this 2020 book of coming-of-age essays, which has been challenged for its LGBTQ+ content and for being sexually explicit. In 2022, Time magazine named Johnson one of the 100 influencers shaping the next generation. (38 bans, 86 challenges)

(Left to right) Author Angie Thomas and George M. Johnson discuss their work at the Festival of Books.

3. “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison. First published in 1970, Morrison’s novel about a Black girl growing up during the Great Depression is a meditation on the oppressive nature of America’s white-centric conception of beauty, as New York Times reviewer John Leonard wrote at the time. The story’s depiction of child abuse and sexual violence led to it being banned at a Southern California high school and elsewhere. (32 bans, 73 challenges)

4. “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Perez. A 1937 explosion that killed nearly 300 students and teachers at a Texas school provides the historical context for this YA novel , a love story about a Black boy and a Mexican American girl. Published in 2015, the book written by an Ohio State University literature professor faced challenges in 2021 about sexual depictions in the story. (31 bans, 50 challenges)

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5. “Flamer” b y Mike Curato. This award-winning 2020 novel explores a teenage boy’s struggle to understand and accept his sexuality while at summer camp in the 1990s. In an interview with PEN America, Curato described “ Flamer ” as a book about suicide prevention. Critics objected to its sexual-leaning content. (25 bans, 62 challenges)

6. “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas . Published in 2017, this novel about a teenage girl who witnesses a police officer kill her childhood best friend was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. The bestseller was adapted into a 2018 film by the same name. An Illinois school board cited inappropriate language as a reason to ban the book in 2022 ; other challenges cited violence and an anti-police message. At the Festival of Books in April, Thomas said books like hers are seen as dangerous because of the power they have to create change through empathy. (24 bans)

Angie Thomas at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

7. “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins. The author based her 2004 novel on her daughter’s struggle with addiction to crystal meth and says the experience helped her better understand the nature of addiction. “The power of this novel is still felt in the constant challenges it still faces nearly twenty years after it was originally published,” writes Maryland librarian Nia Thimakis for the ALA . Challenges cited the book’s depictions of drug use and a violent sexual encounter. (24 bans, 48 challenges)

JAMESTOWN, MI - AUGUST 11 : Books are displayed at the Patmos Library on August 11, 2022 in Jamestown, Michigan. Earlier this month primary voters rejected a proposal to continue funding the library after residents voiced their concerns over the availability of LGBTQ books in the youth section. (Photo by Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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8. “Lawn Boy” b y Jonathan Evison. The 2018 novel tells the story of Mike Muñoz, a young biracial gay Chicano from a working-class family in Washington state. “The coming of age novel has received top marks from critics and readers, but also some challenges as well in schools and libraries because it contains profanity and sexually explicit scenes,” according to the ALA . (23 bans, 54 challenges)

9. “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins . In this 2009 novel , Hopkins tells the story of five troubled teenagers who become involved in prostitution in different parts of the country. It’s another provocative work by Hopkins , who had four books on the ALA’’s list of the top 100 banned or challenged books between 2010 and 2019. (21 bans)

10. “This Book I s Gay” by Juno Dawson. The British author delves into sexuality and gender in her 2014 young adult nonfiction bestseller . “I felt as a former teacher, sex education for LGBTQ+ teenagers wasn’t very good,” Dawson says on Instagram. “They weren’t really learning anything about safety in relationships.” Critics have denounced the book on social media as pornography. (21 bans, 48 challenges)

11. “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie . Based on his own experiences, Alexie tells the story of a budding cartoonist growing up on a Spokane, Wash., reservation. Detractors have challenged the 2007 bestseller, citing sexual references and profanity. (21 bans, 52 challenges)

12. “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher . This 2007 novel explores the reasons a teenage girl decided to take her own life, recorded on cassette tapes discovered by a friend. The book was adapted into a Netflix series in 2017. One Colorado school district banned the book, saying it glamorized suicide, according to PBS NewsHour . (20 bans)

13. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews . This 2012 novel centers around two teenage boys who try to make a movie about their female friend with leukemia. One Missouri school district pulled it from libraries in 2023 because of explicit sexual language. (20 bans, 48 challenges)

14. “Sold” by Patricia McCormick. This 2006 novel, about a young Nepalese girl who struggles to survive being sold into sexual slavery, was a National Book Award finalist . But its realistic depiction of her plight has led to challenges . (18 bans)

15. “Melissa” by Alex Gino . Published in 2015, the novel follows the story of trans fourth-grader Melissa , who is seen by everyone as a boy named George. The book received the ALA’s Stonewall Book Award, a Lambda Literary Award and a Children’s Choice book award. In 2020, opponents of the book tried to close a town library in Kansas because it was on the shelf. (18 bans)

Classic works under fire

Here are another 10 notable books that have been banned or challenged over the years, according to the ALA and other sources.

“The Storyteller” by Jodi Picoult. This 2013 novel, about a young woman who discovers that an elderly man in her town was a death camp commander during the Holocaust, was among 20 books by the bestselling author removed in March from school libraries in Martin County, Fla., according to PEN America . Also removed were nine books from James Patterson’s “Maximum Ride” series and two books by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, among other titles.

Judy Blume in the documentary "Judy Blume Forever."

“Forever” by Judy Blume. This 1975 novel, about a teenage couple who begin having sex, also was banned by Martin County’s school system. “What country is this?” Blume complained to NPR.

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“The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. This 1951 novel is a classic of post-World War II American literature. The ALA notes that this title has been a favorite target of censors since its publication. Numerous school districts removed it from libraries and reading lists between 1960 and 2000.

“The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck . The Nobel Prize-winning author’s novel about the Dust Bowl and the hard lives of displaced farmers and their families in California became a bestseller in 1939. It was banned and copies were burned in Kern County, the destination of the fictional Joad family.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. The classic 1960 novel about racial injustice in a Southern town has been banned and challenged in numerous communities. Challenges often cite language and racial depictions. The hit Broadway adaptation by Aaron Sorkin has been a lightning rod for controversy.

A lawyer in an old-fashioned beige suit and black-rimmed glasses points across the room in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

“Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell. The 1949 dystopian novel was challenged in Florida in 1981 for being “pro-communist” and sexually explicit.

“Beloved” by Toni Morrison. The 1987 novel, in which an enslaved Black woman kills her young daughter to spare her from slavery, was pulled from the Advanced Placement English class at a Louisville, Ky., high school in 2007 after parents complained. The principal ordered teachers to start over with “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

“Catch-22” by Joseph Heller . The 1961 antiwar novel was banned by a school district in Strongville, Ohio, in 1972, along with two novels by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. After students filed a lawsuit, a federal appeals court restored access , deciding the students had “the right to receive information which they and their teachers desired to have. ”

“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. Modern Library’s editorial board ranked “Brave New World,” the 1932 novel about the discontents of a technologically-advanced future society, as the fifth most important novel of the 20th century . Nevertheless, the book was challenged as required reading in the Corona-Norco Unified School District in 1993 because it is “centered around negative activity.” The novel also was removed from a high school library in Foley, Ala., in 2000 after a parent complained that it showed contempt for religion, marriage and family.

“Animal Farm” by George Orwell. The 1945 allegorical novella has been a target of complaints for decades, according to the ALA. In 1987, “ Animal Farm ” was one of dozens of books banned in schools in Bay County, Fla. Then 44 parents, students and teachers filed a federal lawsuit, and the school board reversed the decision. ‘’The only thing we have succeeded in doing is making sure every child in Bay County reads the books we banned,’’ a board member told the Associated Press.

Book club: State of Banned Books

LeVar Burton and Times editor Steve Padilla discuss the State of Banned Books at the L.A. Times Book Club

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Where: ASU California Center in Los Angeles. This book club event also is available virtually: Watch now .

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American Library Association Releases Preliminary Data on 2022 Book Bans

Total book challenges in 2022 set to exceed 2021 record

CHICAGO – Eight months into 2022, the number of attempts to ban or restrict library resources in schools, universities and public libraries, is on track to exceed record counts from 2021, according to preliminary data released today by the American Library Association (ALA) in advance of Banned Books Week (Sept. 18-24).

Between January 1 and August 31, 2022, ALA documented 681 attempts to ban or restrict library resources, and 1,651 unique titles were targeted. In 2021, ALA reported 729 attempts to censor library resources, targeting 1,597 books, which represented the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling these lists more than 20 years ago.

Additionally, more than 70 percent of the 681 attempts to restrict library resources targeted multiple titles. In the past, the vast majority of challenges to library resources only sought to remove or restrict a single book.

“The unprecedented number of challenges we’re seeing already this year reflects coordinated, national efforts to silence marginalized or historically underrepresented voices and deprive all of us – young people, in particular – of the chance to explore a world beyond the confines of personal experience,” said ALA President Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-Lozada.

“Librarians develop collections and resources that make knowledge and ideas widely available, so people and families are free to choose what to read. Though it’s natural that we want to protect young people from some of life’s more difficult realities, the truth is that banning books does nothing to protect them from dealing with tough issues. Instead, it denies young people resources that can help them deal with the challenges that confront them.

“Efforts to censor entire categories of books reflecting certain voices and views shows that the moral panic isn’t about kids: it’s about politics. Organizations with a political agenda are spreading lists of books they don’t like.

“Library professionals trust individuals to make their own decisions about what they read and believe. ALA and our partners in the Unite Against Book Bans campaign are asking readers everywhere to stand with us in the fight against censorship.”

Libraries nationwide will highlight increased censorship of books during this year’s Banned Books Week. Extensive programming during the week will bring together authors, librarians and scholars to share perspectives on censorship and resources to support library workers.

About the American Library Association

The American Library Association (ALA) is the foremost national organization providing resources to inspire library and information professionals to transform their communities through essential programs and services. For more than 140 years, ALA has been the trusted voice for academic, public, school, government, and special libraries, advocating for the profession and the library’s role in enhancing learning and ensuring access to information for all. Visit ala.org for more information.

Shawnda Hines

Deputy Director, Communications

American Library Association

Public Policy & Advocacy Office

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Book bans are on the rise. What are the most banned books and why?

Banned books are not new, but they have gained new relevance in an escalating culture war that puts books centering racism, sexuality and gender identity at risk in public schools and libraries.

A dramatic uptick in challenged books over the past few years, an escalation of censorship tactics, and the coordinated harassment of teachers and librarians has regularly put book banning efforts in news headlines.

Would-be book banners argue that readers can still purchase books they can no longer access through public libraries, but that is only true for those with the financial resources to do so. For many, particularly children and young adults, schools and public libraries are the only means to access literature.

What is a book ban?

When a book is successfully “banned,” that means a book has been removed from school curriculums and/or public libraries because a person or group has objected to its content.

Check out: USA TODAY's weekly Best-selling Booklist

An attempt to get a book removed is called a challenge. Most public schools and libraries have boards made up of elected officials (or people appointed by elected officials) who have the power to remove books from the schools and libraries they oversee.

Why it matters: A book ban is significant because it restricts others’ access to books, and the ideas contained within those books, based on another person’s often ideologically or politically motivated objection.

Are book bans on the rise in the U.S.?

Yes. The American Library Association (ALA) keeps track of challenges and bans across the country, and the most recent data is alarming.

In 2022, the ALA recorded more than 1,200 challenges of more than 2,500 different books , nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and by far the most since the ALA began keeping data 20 years ago.

The actual numbers are likely much higher: Some challenges are never reported by libraries, and books preemptively pulled by librarians out of fear for their jobs are not included.

What are the most banned books?

A recent analysis by PEN America found that many challenged books focus on communities of color, the history of racism in America and LGBTQ characters. In fact, one in three books restricted by school districts in the past year featured LGBTQ themes or characters.

Here are the 13 most challenged books of 2022, according to the ALA:

"Gender Queer," by Maia Kobabe
"All Boys Aren't Blue," by George M. Johnson
"The Bluest Eye," by Toni Morrison
"Flamer," by Mike Curato
"Looking for Alaska," by John Green
"The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky
"Lawn Boy," by Jonathan Evison
"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," by Sherman Alexie
"Out of Darkness," by Ashley Hope Pérez
"A Court of Mist and Fury," by Sarah J. Maas
"Crank," by Ellen Hopkins
"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl," by Jesse Andrews
"This Book Is Gay," by Juno Dawson

Many books that were historically banned ended up becoming literary classics that are still taught in modern classrooms. Accordingly to the ALA, frequently banned classics include:

" To Kill a Mockingbird ," by Harper Lee
" The Catcher in the Rye ," by JD Salinger
" The Grapes of Wrath ," by John Steinbeck
" The Color Purple ," by Alice Walker
" 1984 ," by George Orwell
" Brave New World ," by Aldous Huxley
" Native Son ," by Richard Wright
" Slaughterhouse-Five ," by Kurt Vonnegut
" A Separate Peace ," by John Knowles
" The Lord of the Flies ," by William Golding

Who bans books in the U.S.?

Book banning made major headlines last year when the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee voted 10-0 to remove Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic memoir “Maus,” about his parents’ experience of the holocaust, from its curriculum.

Since then, there’s been a largely conservative push to remove certain titles from schools and libraries, in some cases with politicians leading the charge, including:

Glenn Youngkin: During his successful run for Virginia governor last fall, the Republican candidate ran a controversial ad featuring a mother who objected to her teenage son being assigned Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” in English class. In April, now Governor Youngkin signed a bill requiring Virginia schools to notify parents when their children are assigned books that contain sexually explicit content.

Henry McMaster: The Republican South Carolina governor supported a school board's decision to remove "Gender Queer,” calling the book “obscene.”

Ron DeSantis: The Republican Florida governor also criticized “Gender Queer” and this year signed into law a bill requiring schools to make all books and materials more transparent so parents can “blow the whistle.”

What’s being done to combat book banning?

Let America Read: Celebrities including Julia Roberts, Selma Blair and Andy Cohen joined forces with the CAA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Creative Artists Agency, and the Campaign for Our Shared Future for the Let America Read campaign to raise awareness on the issue of book banning. In an Instagram post highlighting frequently challenged books by Black Authors, TV mega producer Shonda Rhimes wrote, "These books are so important for a multitude of reasons. Books like these are now banned in multiple states simply because they deal with the lives of Black families in America. These stories are necessary so that kids can see themselves and to be able to embrace the differences in others. Support our children’s freedom to learn and let America read."

American Library Association: Every year, the ALA and libraries across the country celebrate Banned Books Week . This year’s Banned Books Week runs Oct. 1-7 .

Foundation 451: A fundraiser in Florida to buy challenged books and distribute them to students spawned thousands in donations and has morphed into a nonprofit organization . The organization has distributed books at about a dozen events, setting up tables at festivals, churches and local businesses.

Nashville Public Library: This Southern library protested banned books this year with a limited edition library card with the special message: "I read banned books." The bright yellow cards are part of the library's Freedom to Read campaign celebrating the "right to read."

Margaret Atwood: Author of the frequently banned dystopian feminist novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” promoted the auction of a specially commissioned unburnable edition of her book made of Cinefoil by unsuccessfully attempting to incinerate a prototype with a flamethrower. The stunt brought in $130,000, with proceeds going to PEN America.

Banned books in the news

Illinois law will penalize libraries that ban books : Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a bill that he says will make Illinois the first state in the nation to outlaw book bans. Illinois public libraries that restrict or ban materials because of “partisan or doctrinal” disapproval will be ineligible for state funding as of Jan. 1, 2024, when the new law goes into effect.
Georgia school’s book bans may break civil rights law : The U.S. Department of Education has found that suburban Atlanta Forsyth County school district's decision to remove some books from its libraries may have created a hostile environment that violated federal laws against race and sex discrimination. The legal intervention by the department's Office of Civil Rights could curb efforts to ban books in other public school districts nationwide, especially when bans are focused on books that include content about LGBTQ and nonwhite people. Forsyth County in January 2022 removed eight books, including Toni Morrison's “The Bluest Eye,” but allowed seven to return after further consideration. It excluded only “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a memoir about growing up gay and Black by George M. Johnson.
Florida governor goes to war with education : Under Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida passed a law requiring all books available to children to be approved by a "district employee holding a valid educational media specialist certificate." The law bars any content deemed "pornographic" or "not suited to student needs," a classification so broad some teachers began removing books early as a precaution against legal action. In response, the Florida teacher's union joined other groups in filing a lawsuit against the state Department of Education alleging the law is overreaching and will lead to censorship.

Version of 'Anne Frank' removed from Florida high school : An illustrated adaptation of "The Diary of Anne Frank" was removed from the Vero Beach High School library after a parent group complained the book minimalizes the Holocaust and shows the young girl's thoughts about other female bodies.

Banned book attempts hit record high in 2022: The American Library Association (ALA) released its latest data on book banning attempts, which nearly doubled over last year's then-record highs. "I've never seen anything like this," says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who directs the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom. "The last two years have been exhausting, frightening, outrage inducing."

James Patterson's responds to book removal : Martin County, Florida school district officials removed Patterson's young adult series "Maximum Ride" from its elementary school library. Patterson tweeted about the incident, urging fans who found "mindless book banning troubling or confusing" to write to Florida governor DeSantis, who has been aggressively waging the culture war. "If you are going to ban this book, then no kids under 12 should go to any Marvel movies," Patterson said in an interview .

House Republicans introduce "Parents Bill of Rights" : Republicans across the country have focused on educational issues as they lay the groundwork for the 2024 presidential and congressional elections, from DeSantis blocking a high school course on Black history to bills restricting LGBTQ education. The Parents Bill of Rights would require all curriculums to be made public, including any materials in a school library or classroom, and follows outcries from parents who are unhappy that lessons and books about racism, sexual orientation and gender are being taught in schools.

"Moms for Liberty" seeks to restrict books in Iowa : Five Iowa moms, all members of the conservative "Moms for Liberty" group, made their case to Iowa lawmakers in February about their efforts to remove or limit "inappropriate" books in schools. At a Moms for Liberty event, Gov. Kim Reynolds promised to end "indoctrination" in public schools and to back legislation that would give parents more oversight into which books are made available to students.

Education Department investigates removal of LGBTQ books from Texas schools : The removal of LGBTQ-themed books from the library of the Granbury, Texas, school district is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's civil rights division following a complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Contributing: Associated Press.

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Over 1,600 books were banned in U.S. school districts in one year – and the number is increasing

By Caitlin O'Kane

September 20, 2022 / 4:09 PM EDT / CBS News

The number of books banned in American school districts is increasing, a new report by PEN America has found. Between July 2021 and June 2022, books were banned 2,532 times in public schools across the U.S., according to the nonprofit, which works to defend free expression.

PEN American says 1,648 unique book titles were banned in that period. Between July 2021 and March 2022, PEN tracked 1,586 book bans. Since that report was published in April, 275 more book bans were recorded between April and June 2022.

Many books – 41% – that were banned included LGBTQ themes, protagonists or prominent secondary characters. A whopping 40% that were banned included people of color. Books with issues of race and racism (21%) and books with themes of rights and activism (10%) were also among those banned. About 22% of the books that were banned had sexual content. Biographies, autobiographies and stories about religious minorities are also on the list of banned books.

There are several reasons why books may be banned from schools and libraries. Last year, dozens of Republican state lawmakers introduced bills that would ban content they deemed offensive in schools.

PEN America estimates that at least 40% of book bans are connected to either legislation "or to political pressure exerted by state officials or elected lawmakers to restrict the teaching or presence of certain books or concepts."

PEN America has also identified at least 50 groups, many of which have local or regional chapters, that they say have played a role in at least 50% of the book bans enacted across the country during the 2021–2022 school year.

Under legislation that targets content with themes of race and sexuality, and campaigns by members of the public, schools may feel pressure to remove books from their classrooms and libraries.

American Library Association (ALA) keeps a record of frequently banned books and some titles are extremely popular — like the "Harry Potter" series, which was on the top 10 most frequently banned books list in 2019. This series was banned for "referring to magic and witchcraft, for containing actual curses and spells, and for characters that use 'nefarious means' to attain goals," according to the ALA .

Most books, however, are banned because they include themes about race or sexuality.

Some states ban books that include themes about race by using the term "critical race theory" in their legislation. Critical race theory is most often taught at the college or law school levels and acknowledges racial disparities have persisted in U.S. history and are reinforced in U.S. law and institutions.

While there is no evidence that critical race theory is taught in K-12 schools, it is often used as a catch-all term in states' legislation – including Texas' — as a way to limit discussions about race in the classroom.

Books that include themes of sexuality, like "Gender Queer," are often deemed "obscene" and "pornographic" by people who want to ban them, PEN America said in its report.

"Gender Queer," the most frequently-banned book, according to PEN America, is written by Maia Kobabe and is described by its publisher as a "useful and touching guide on gender identity."

Deborah Stone, director of the ALA's office for intellectual freedom, told CBS News last year that books "that reflect the lives of LGBTQIA persons and families" provide important representation.

"You might not be the audience, your child might not be the audience, but more often than not, there is an audience for the books and often they are desperately needed," she said.

PEN America said there is evidence that the effort to ban books is continuing in the 2022–2023 school year — at least 139 additional bans have taken effect since July 2022.

"This movement to ban books is deeply undemocratic, in that it often seeks to impose restrictions on all students and families based on the preferences of those calling for the bans and notwithstanding polls that consistently show that Americans of all political persuasions oppose book bans ," PEN America said, citing a CBS News poll that found more than 8 in 10 Americans don't think books should be banned from schools for discussing race and criticizing U.S. history, for depicting slavery in the past, or, more broadly for political ideas they disagree with.

Caitlin O'Kane is a New York City journalist who works on the CBS News social media team as a eenior manager of content and production. She writes about a variety of topics and produces "The Uplift," CBS News' streaming show that focuses on good news.

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Read the Books That Schools Want to Ban

These 14 titles have been under attack for doing exactly what literature is supposed to do.

The spine of a read book makes up the slash in a circular "no" symbol.

Updated at 13:58 p.m. ET on February 3, 2022.

Book banning is back. Texas State Representative Matt Krause recently put more than 800 books on a watch list, many of them dealing with race and LGBTQ issues. Then an Oklahoma state senator filed a bill to ban books that address “sexual perversion,” among other things, from school libraries. The school board of McMinn County, Tennessee, just banned Maus , Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic memoir about the Holocaust. Officials said that they didn’t object to teaching about genocide, but that the book’s profanity, nudity, violence, and depiction of suicide made it “too adult-oriented for use in our schools.”

No one has yet figured out how to depict the Holocaust without ugliness, for the very obvious reason that it was one of the greatest crimes in human history. Maus details the cruelties that Spiegelman’s father witnessed during World War II, including in Auschwitz, as well as the pair’s complicated relationship after the war. Some nudity shows Jews—depicted in the book as mice (their German oppressors are drawn as cats)—stripped naked before their murder. Hiding these images from children purposefully ignores the mechanized gruesomeness of the Holocaust. And Maus ’s removal isn’t a side effect of an otherwise neutral attempt to keep classrooms wholesome. As I wrote in December, getting rid of books that spotlight bigotry is the goal .

Read: This is a shakedown

Books have been the targets of bans in America for more than a century. Maus is not the first, or the last, casualty of an ideology that, in the name of protecting children, leaves them ignorant of the world as it often is. The following 14 books employ difficult, sometimes upsetting imagery to tell complicated stories. That approach has made them some of the most frequently challenged, or outright banned, books in America’s schools; it also makes them perfect examples of what literature is supposed to do. Please consider buying them for the students in your life, and for yourselves.

To Kill a Mockingbird , by Harper Lee

Lee’s 1960 novel about a white lawyer defending a Black man falsely accused of rape in a segregated Alabama town won the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film. The novel, long used in classrooms as a parable about American racism, has faced various controversies over the decades. Last week, it was removed from a Washington State school district’s required-reading list —although not outright banned—for its racial slurs and for the perception of Atticus Finch as a white savior .

The Handmaid’s Tale , by Margaret Atwood

Atwood’s popular dystopian story turns the United States into a Christian theocracy called Gilead, where fertile women are stripped of their name and impregnated against their will. Its sexual violence and criticism of religion have made it ripe for challenges in schools . The original book, its adaptation into a graphic novel, and its sequel, The Testaments, were pulled from circulation, then quickly restored, in a Kansas school district in November.

Read: Slouching towards Gilead

The Bluest Eye , by Toni Morrison

Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye , has shown up multiple times on the American Library Association’s annual list of challenged books . The classic, which kicked off Morrison’s Nobel Prize–winning career , follows Pecola Breedlove, a Black girl with a tragic family history and a deep desire to have blue eyes. In January, The Bluest Eye was removed from a Missouri school district’s libraries to keep children away from painful scenes of sexual abuse and incest—which in Morrison’s hands become illustrations of the insidious psychological damage that racism deals to her characters.

Fallen Angels , by Walter Dean Myers

This Coretta Scott King Award winner, like many of Myers’s novels, follows a young Black protagonist. In this story, 17-year-old Richie Perry leaves Harlem for Vietnam, where he faces the horror and banality of war. As with Myers’s 1999 book Monster , some have deemed it too violent and profane for students.

Heather Has Two Mommies , by Lesléa Newman

Newman’s 1989 picture book broke ground by depicting exactly what its title says. A young girl named Heather has two lesbian mothers and realizes in the story that her family is different from her schoolmates’ families. She learns why she doesn’t have a father, and that there are many different kinds of families. Newman’s story might feel anodyne today, but the furor it caused in the 1990s, when it was the ninth-most-challenged book of the decade, hasn’t abated: Heather was taken off the shelves in a Pennsylvania school district in December.

Maus , by Art Spiegelman

The truth of the Holocaust is both abstracted and explicitly rendered in the graphic memoir Maus , which was banned in a Tennessee county last month by a unanimous vote . Spiegelman draws his Jewish family and protagonists as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs, but this style doesn’t fully blunt the hideousness of the victims’ suffering. Some of the topics that got the book banned, such as Spiegelman’s mother’s suicide, are essential to rendering the effects of the war. Without them, it would be a different story entirely.

Speak , by Laurie Halse Anderson

This 1999 young-adult book about a teenager dealing with the effects of sexual assault was notably called “soft pornography” in a newspaper op-ed that drew notice from Anderson herself . Speak ’s honesty about its protagonist’s trauma and the subsequent social shunning she endures has made it a perennial classic —and a target for criticism.

His Dark Materials , by Philip Pullman

Pullman’s award-winning fantasy trilogy is populated with talking armored polar bears, soul-sucking specters, and translucent angels. But ultimately, it’s about a war on adolescence. The story’s villains, all affiliated with an allegorical version of the Catholic Church, are motivated by a perverse desire to keep children innocent—even by essentially lobotomizing them. In contrast, the heroes celebrate knowledge and fight to overthrow the religious hierarchy threatening their world. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the books were criticized for their supposed anti-Christian themes and plotlines involving witchcraft.

From the November 2019 issue: Philip Pullman’s problem with God

Looking for Alaska , by John Green

The teenagers at Green’s Alabama boarding school drink, smoke, swear, and fumble their way through life. Those actions have made the novel controversial for more than a decade. Green, whose later book The Fault in Our Stars was hugely popular, has repeatedly defended it—including what he calls its intentionally “massively unerotic” oral-sex scene.

Between the World and Me , by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This epistolary book by the famed Atlantic writer reflects on racism’s long shadow. Coates’s frank assessment of the effect of centuries of racial violence on contemporary Black Americans has been attacked in some schools. Between the World and Me and Coates’s We Were Eight Years in Power are also included on Representative Krause’s list of books that “might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.”

The Hate U Give , by Angie Thomas

Thomas’s debut young-adult novel was a best seller and was quickly adapted into a film . Starr, a Black teenager, witnesses a white police officer kill her friend at a traffic stop. While navigating her grief, she gradually becomes a public advocate for racial justice. The Hate U Give has been challenged for its profanity and depiction of drug dealing, but most vigorously for its thematic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement. A South Carolina police union objected to its inclusion on a high-school reading list, calling it “ almost an indoctrination of distrust of police .”

Gender Queer , by Maia Kobabe

Through illustrations and tender writing, this graphic memoir follows the nonbinary author’s journey of self-discovery. Its exploration of sexuality and gender, especially in illustrations depicting oral sex, made its inclusion in school libraries a prime target for criticism last year.

In the Dream House , by Carmen Maria Machado

Machado’s captivating, experimental memoir details her abusive relationship with another woman, and her eventual escape from it. At a March 2021 school-board meeting in Leander, Texas, a parent read a sex scene from the book aloud and held up a pink dildo as part of an effort to demand its removal from a book club. In December, the district removed the book permanently from Leander schools.

Read: How surrealism enriches storytelling about women

All Boys Aren’t Blue , by George M. Johnson

The essays in this collection take apart and examine Black masculinity, queer sexuality, and Johnson’s own life. The book has been removed from school libraries in multiple states and lambasted as “sexually explicit,” which the author called “disingenuous for multiple reasons.”

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Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/how-many-book-bans-were-attempted-in-your-state-use-this-map-to-find-out

How many book bans were attempted in your state? Use this map to find out

A record number of book challenges emerged across the country in 2022 , with more than 2,570 unique titles targeted, according to new data from the American Library Association.

READ MORE: The 13 most banned and challenged books of 2022

The most common titles targeted in these bans address race, gender identity, sexuality and reproductive health. Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” had the most challenges — 151 total — for the second year in a row , according to the ALA.

The ALA’s figures are based on a combination of news reports on attempted book bans and voluntary accounts from schools and libraries. The association said its data is likely an undercount, with as many as 97 percent of challenges go unreported. Each book ban attempt can include multiple titles, and a single title can also be challenged multiple times in one state (for example, in different library districts).

Texas had the most attempts to restrict books — at 93 total — last year. Toni Morrison’s debut 1970 novel “The Bluest Eye” was the most challenged book in the state.

The ALA created the map below to show how many books were challenged, and the most-challenged titles. Where does your state fall?

Some states, including West Virginia and New Mexico, saw fewer attempts to remove or restrict books in 2022. Other states, like Pennsylvania and Michigan, had more than 50 restriction attempts last year.

All the top 13 most challenged books in 2022 were accused of containing sexually explicit content, according to the ALA’s snapshot released Monday . These challenges also focused on many of the books’ LGBTQ+ themes, according to the ALA’s latest report. That would include Kobabe’s “Gender Queer,” which is in small part a homage to finding queer books on library shelves.

Jenna Cohen is the Associate Product Manager at PBS NewsHour. Working on the digital team, she specializes in data, design and product management.

Joshua Barajas is a senior editor for the PBS NewsHour's Communities Initiative. He also the senior editor and manager of newsletters.

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Librarians in Louisiana at odds with conservative activists working to ban books

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Book Banning Efforts Surged in 2021. These Titles Were the Most Targeted.

Most of the targeted books are about Black and L.G.B.T.Q. people, according to the American Library Association. The country’s polarized politics has fueled the rise.

By Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter

Attempts to ban books in the United States surged in 2021 to the highest level since the American Library Association began tracking book challenges 20 years ago, the organization said Monday.

Most of the targeted books were by or about Black and L.G.B.T.Q. people, the association said.

Book challenges are a perennial issue at school board meetings and libraries. But more recently, efforts fueled by the country’s intensely polarized political environment have been amplified by social media, where lists of books some consider to be inappropriate for children circulate quickly and widely.

Challenges to certain titles have been embraced by some conservative politicians, cast as an issue of parental choice and parental rights. Those who oppose these efforts, however, say that prohibiting the books violates the rights of parents and children who want those titles to be available.

“What we’re seeing right now is an unprecedented campaign to remove books from school libraries but also public libraries that deal with the lives and experience of people from marginalized communities,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the American Library Association’s office for intellectual freedom. “We’re seeing organized groups go to school boards and library boards and demand actual censorship of these books in order to conform to their moral or political views.”

The library association said it counted 729 challenges last year to library, school and university materials, as well as research databases and e-book platforms. Each challenge can contain multiple titles, and the association tracked 1,597 individual books that were either challenged or removed.

The count is based on voluntary reporting by educators and librarians and on media reports, the association said, and is not comprehensive.

Librarians and free speech advocates have also noticed an increase in heavy-handed tactics, including high-profile political pressure against certain books and legal threats against librarians responsible for choosing reading material — and even against the books themselves.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, a Republican, ran a campaign ad featuring a mother who did not want Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” to be a part of her son’s high school curriculum. Another Republican, Henry McMaster, the governor of South Carolina, asked for an investigation into what he called “ obscene and pornographic ” materials in the state’s public schools, specifically mentioning the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe, which the library association said was the most frequently challenged book in the country last year.

A county prosecutor’s office in Wyoming considered criminal charges against library employees for stocking books such as “This Book is Gay” and “Sex Is a Funny Word.” A school board member in Flagler County, Fla., filed a complaint with the sheriff’s department against a book called “All Boys Aren’t Blue.”

Law enforcement officials determined there was no basis for a criminal investigation in either instance. But librarians say that just the specter of having to defend against charges, or to withstand such a public spectacle, is likely to have a chilling effect, discouraging library employees from ordering certain books in the first place.

Here are the ten most frequently challenged books of 2021, according to the library association.

1. ‘Gender Queer,’ by Maia Kobabe

In this 2019 illustrated memoir, Kobabe, who is nonbinary, explored questions surrounding sexuality and gender identity and the process of coming out as gender nonconforming. Most objections to the book, which has been pulled from school and public libraries across the country, point to brief references to masturbation and an illustration based on an erotic image of an older man and a boy depicted on a Greek urn. But Kobabe and others note that many of the challenges stem from the memoir’s frank discussion of gender fluidity.

2. ‘ Lawn Boy ,’ by Jonathan Evison

Evison’s 2018 novel follows a young Mexican American man who works as a landscaper and is coming to terms with his sexual identity. While it was written for adults, the novel found an audience with teens and won an Alex Award, a prize given by the Young Adult Library Services Association to books written for adults that hold appeal to young adults. Critics seized on a scene that describes a sexual encounter between two boys.

Evison has said he has received death threats as a result of the campaigns to ban his book.

3. ‘ All Boys Aren’t Blue ,’ by George M. Johnson

Johnson’s memoir earned glowing reviews for its unflinching and at times exuberant look at the challenges and joys of growing up Black and queer. The book, which includes scenes that depict oral and anal sex and sexual assault, has been challenged in school libraries across the country.

4. ‘ Out of Darkness ,’ by Ashley Hope Pérez

Set in 1930s Texas, “Out of Darkness” centers on a romance between a Mexican American teenage girl and a Black teenage boy. The novel has been widely challenged, including by a parent at the Lake Travis Independent School District in Austin who complained about a passage where teenage boys make explicit sexual and racist comments about a Mexican American girl. Perez has argued that her novel deals with racism and sexual abuse because those are issues that young people confront in their own lives.

5. ‘ The Hate U Give ,’ by Angie Thomas

Thomas’s young adult debut novel centers on a Black teenage girl whose friend is shot by a police officer during a traffic stop. A best seller, it helped stir conversations about police violence, but has been challenged across the country for what critics say is profanity, violence and an “anti-police” agenda.

“There’s the assumption that it’s an anti-police book, when the fact is it’s anti-police brutality,” Thomas said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

6. ‘ The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ,’ by Sherman Alexie

Based on the author’s own experience, this young adult book follows a boy on the Spokane Indian Reservation who attends an all-white school where the only other Native American is the school mascot. It won a National Book Award in 2007 in the Young People’s Literature category.

The library association said it has been targeted for banning because of sexual references, profanity and the use of a derogatory term.

7. ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,’ by Jesse Andrews

A novel about an awkward boy named Greg who hopes to make it through high school by keeping a low profile; his friend, Earl; and a girl who has cancer, whom Greg’s mom pushes him to befriend. A New York Times best seller, it was made into a movie written by Andrews and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.

The book has been challenged because it was considered degrading to women and sexually explicit.

8. ‘ The Bluest Eye ,’ by Toni Morrison

Published in 1970, Morrison’s debut novel is considered a canonical work of American fiction. Narrated by a Black girl in Ohio, the book follows a tragic heroine who believes that she is ugly, and prays for blue eyes.

The book has been challenged because it depicts child sexual abuse and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.

9. ‘This Book is Gay,’ by Juno Dawson

A nonfiction exploration of growing up as L.G.B.T.Q., this title addresses a variety of issues including sex, politics and stereotypes. The book has been challenged because of its L.G.B.T.Q. material and themes, and for “providing sexual education,” the library association said.

10. ‘Beyond Magenta,’ by Susan Kuklin

This book profiles the lives of six transgender or gender-neutral teenagers, largely in their own words. The book was challenged for its L.G.B.T.Q. content and because it was considered sexually explicit, the association said.

Elizabeth A. Harris writes about books and publishing for The Times. More about Elizabeth A. Harris

Alexandra Alter writes about publishing and the literary world. Before joining The Times in 2014, she covered books and culture for The Wall Street Journal. Prior to that, she reported on religion, and the occasional hurricane, for The Miami Herald. More about Alexandra Alter

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4 in 10 Books Banned in 2022 Are LGBTQ+-Related

By Abby Monteil

Image may contain Book Human Person Reading and Tomokazu Seki

Of the many things that could be considered a great American pastime, one of them should not be banning books. And yet, here we are!

A new report from nonprofit group PEN America released during Banned Books Week found that more than 1,600 books were banned in over 5,000 schools over the last school year, and 41% of the banned books were targeted due to LGBTQ+ content .

PEN America noted that there is currently a concerted effort to find books with LGBTQ+ content and work to ban them. Jonathan Friedman, the director of free expression and education at PEN America, explained to NBC News that conservative groups often search for books with LGBTQ+ content on the internet and then add them to lists of books with inappropriate content to feign legitimate concern.

“They complain about the books online, the books go on a list, the list takes on a sense of legitimacy, and then it being on the list leads a school district to react to that list and take it seriously,” Friedman said, adding that in nearly all of the cases, the cycle happens without schools or libraries going through proper channels to question books.

Maia Kobabe’s comic book memoir Gender Queer , about growing up nonbinary and asexual, was the year’s most-banned book, according to PEN America. It’s been targeted by 41 school districts between July 2021 and June 2022 due to its frank discussions of sexuality and gender identity. It’s worth noting that although the book contains some illustrations of the human body, like a butt crack and a reproduction of a Greek vase, it contains no sex scenes.

“ Gender Queer ends up at the center of this because it is a graphic novel, and because it is dealing with sexuality at a time when that’s become taboo,” Friedman told The New York Times in May. “There’s definitely an element of anti L.G.B.T.Q.+ backlash.”

LGBTQ+ banned books

In second was All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, another memoir about the author’s journey growing up as a queer Black man in New Jersey and Virginia.

Other queer banned titles include Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel about a queer Mexican American boy; Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin; and This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson, an educational, non-fiction book aimed at questioning teens and their parents.

Many of the banned books (40%) contained characters of color, and 21% directly addressed issues of race and racism.

PEN America found that these book bans affected 1,648 titles at 5,049 schools with a combined enrollment of nearly 4 million students in 32 states. Texas banned more books from school libraries than any other state, banning 801 books across 22 school districts. Florida — a.k.a. the home of the anti-LGBTQ+ education bill “ Don’t Say Gay ” — followed closely behind, with 566 book bans across 21 school districts.

Additionally, the report said that almost all of the bans (96%) were enacted without schools or districts following the best practice guidelines for book challenges outlined by the ALA and the National Coalition Against Censorship.

As GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis pointed out in a statement, these bans are inextricably linked to other attacks on LGBTQ+ youth, including the 93 anti-LGBTQ school policy bills introduced in 2022 thus far.

“Banning books is just one arm of a larger, organized campaign to target and harass LGBTQ youth nationwide,” Ellis said. “There’s no separating book bans from ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws, attacks on healthcare and sports for trans youth, and the hundreds of other bills and policies that put LGBTQ youth at the center of a target built by extremist groups and politicians. Everyone deserves to see themselves represented in books and other forms of media, and the targeting of LGBTQ youth through book bans and other anti-LGBTQ school policies must end.”

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10 of the Best LGBTQ+ Books to Read This Fall

By Sarah Neilson

The Right Is Banning LGBTQ+ Books, So We Made Our Own Queer Syllabus

By Daniel Spielberger

Queer YA Books Are Selling in Record Numbers Despite Bans Targeting Them

By Jennifer Gerson, The 19th

The National Park Service Has Walked Back Its Ban on Rangers Attending Pride in Uniform

By Samantha Riedel

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Report: Last year ended with a surge in book bans

Elizabeth Blair

Cumulative book bans in the United States, July 1, 2021 - December 31, 2023. See the full PEN America report here. PEN America hide caption

Cumulative book bans in the United States, July 1, 2021 - December 31, 2023. See the full PEN America report here.

PEN America says there was an "unprecedented" surge in book bans during the latter half of 2023, according to a new report.

The free expression group says that from July-December of last year, it recorded 4,349 instances of book bans across 23 states and 52 public school districts. The report says more books were banned in those six months than in the 12 months of the 2022-2023 school year.

Adults have a lot to say about book bans — but what about kids?

PEN America says it draws its information on bans from "publicly available data on district or school websites, news sources, public records requests, and school board minutes."

Among the key takeaways:

The vast majority of school book bans occurred in Florida, with 3,135 bans across 11 of the state's school districts. A spokesperson with Florida's Department of Education declined NPR's request for comment.
Book bans are often instigated by a small number of people. Challenges from one parent lead to a temporary banning of 444 books in a school district in Wisconsin.
Those who ban books often cite "obscenity law and hyperbolic rhetoric about 'porn in schools' to justify banning books about sexual violence and LGBTQ+ topics (and in particular, trans identities)," the report says.
There is a similar surge in resistance against the bans, says the report. Authors, students and others are "fighting back in creative and powerful ways."

Who's doing the banning?

A study by The Washington Post found that in 2021-2022, "Just 11 people were responsible for filing 60 percent" of book challenges.

At a press conference today, free expression advocates from around the country that joined PEN America to discuss bans talked about the seemingly-outsized power of a small, but vocal, group.

American Library Association report says book challenges soared in 2023

High school senior Quinlen Schachle, the president of the Alaska Association of Student Governments, said when he attends school board meetings, "It's, like, [the same] one adult that comes up every day and challenges a new book. It is not a concerned a group of parents coming in droves to these meetings."

Laney Hawes, Co-Director of the Texas Freedom to Read Project said books are often banned because of "a handful of lists that are being circulated to different school districts" and not because of "a parent whose child finds the book and they have a problem with it."

To fight so-called book bans, some states are threatening to withhold funding

PEN America defines a book ban as "any action taken against a book based on its content...that leads to a previously accessible book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished."

The conservative American Enterprise Institute took exception to PEN America's April 2022 banned books report . In a report for the Education Freedom Institute, AEI said it found that "almost three-quarters of the books that PEN listed as banned were still available in school libraries in the same districts from which PEN claimed they had been banned."

You can read PEN America's full report here .

This story was edited by Jennifer Vanasco.

New censorship report finds that over 4,000 books were targeted in US libraries in 2023

A reading area in St Paul’s Cathedral's Hidden Library, which features over 22,000 books, in London, England.

NEW YORK— Bannings and attempted bannings of books soared again in the U.S. last year, continuing to set record highs, according to a new report from the American Library Association .

On Thursday, the ALA announced that 4,240 works in school and public libraries had been targeted in 2023, a substantial hike from the then-record 2,571 books in 2022 and the most the library association has tallied since it began keeping track more than 20 years ago.

As in recent years, many of the books being challenged — 47% — have LGBTQ and racial themes.

The number of separate challenges recorded by the ALA, 1,247, is actually down by 22 from last year. But efforts to censor dozens or even hundreds of books at a time have surged in Florida and Texas, among other states, reflecting the influence of such conservative organizations as Moms for Liberty and such websites as www.booklooks.org and www.ratedbooks.org.

"Each demand to ban a book is a demand to deny each person's constitutionally protected right to choose and read books that raise important issues and lift up the voices of those who are often silenced," Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, said in a statement.

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Book bans are on the rise. What are the most banned books and why?

Caldwell-Stone said she was especially concerned about the rise in challenges at public libraries, now some 40% of overall challenges — more than double the percentage from 2022.

"We used to hear that when a book was removed from a school library that the child could still get it from the library in town," she said. "Now we're seeing the same groups turn around and demand the books be removed from the public libraries.

Authors of banned books speak up: 'We can’t take these freedoms for granted'

Next month, the association will release its annual list of books most frequently challenged. Maia Kobabe's graphic memoir "Gender Queer" has topped the list for the past two years, with other criticized releases including Jonathan Evison's "Lawn Boy," Sherman Alexie's "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye."

The ALA's numbers are based on media accounts and reports from librarians. The association has long believed that many challenges go uncounted, or that some books are pulled by librarians in anticipation of protests.

Book bans in the US are at an all-time high. Will we see a similar spike in Australia?

There has been a division of opinion over who should translate American poet Amanda Gorman's poetry.

On January 20, 2021, the young black poet Amanda Gorman stood upon the dais at Joe Biden's presidential inauguration to read her poem The Hill We Climb.

It was a historic moment, and Gorman rose to meet it, delivering a stirring performance watched by millions worldwide.

Yet two years later, a printed version of the poem — a tribute to hope, harmony and the democratic project — was removed from the library of an elementary school in Florida after a parent complained the book aimed to " cause confusion and indoctrinate students ".

The Hill We Climb was not the only book removed from library shelves in the US in 2023.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), 4,240 titles held in public libraries and schools were challenged in 2023, a 65 per cent increase from 2022. Around half of these books dealt with sexuality and race.

Seventeen states recorded attempts to ban 100 books or more. This includes Florida, which passed controversial 'don't say gay' legislation in 2022, preventing teachers from discussing sexuality and gender identity in the classroom.

But book censorship is not restricted to the US.

In Australia, activists have recently sought to remove books dealing with topics such as sex education and same-sex parenting from libraries and bookstores.

So what is driving the wave of book bans and challenges around the world?

What are the most banned books?

In 2023, the most challenged books in the US were Gender Queer: A Memoir, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe, followed by All Boys Aren't Blue by queer black activist George M Johnson and This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson.

Many of the targeted books engage with events and issues that young readers encounter in their everyday lives, such as menstruation, sexual assault or police violence, Tracie D Hall, a librarian who served as executive director of the ALA from 2020 to 2023, tells ABC RN's The Book Show .

"Many of them are bildungsroman novels, either coming-of-age novels in which the protagonist has to grapple with something that could be life-changing or life-altering, or they are memoirs."

A smiling black woman wearing a black top and red and pink patterned scarf

A Washington Post analysis of more than 1000 book challenges made to school districts across the US revealed that most came from just 11 people.

Also leading the complaints charge are groups such as Moms for Liberty, who copy and paste excerpts from books into emails sent to hundreds of people, urging them to lodge complaints about specific texts.

"What we see is small groups that have deep political aspirations identify groups of people who are uninformed [and] haven't read the material … asking them to carry charges or allegations or to carry requests for censorship or restriction or the outright banning of books altogether," Hall says.

"It isn't the soccer mom and the basketball dad and the grandparent who goes to the school all of the time [who are driving book challenges]."

Hall attends as many school board hearings on challenged books as she can.

"You inevitably hear the same thing … 'I haven't read the book but I was told that this passage is in the book, and therefore I object to this book being available to young people,'" she says.

Do book bans happen in Australia?

While books by Australian authors, including Anh Do's WeirDo series for kids, have been subject to challenges in the US, a different education system in Australia means we lack the politicised school districts responsible for censoring many books in the US.

However, Australia has form when it comes to book censorship.

"Through the 20th century, Australia assiduously banned [material featuring] homosexual, queer and non-heterosexual forms of sexual activity," Nicole Moore, professor in English and Media Studies at UNSW Canberra and author of The Censor's Library, tells ABC RN's The Book Show .

"The censors thought of themselves as protectors of Australian morals, so there was attention to sex outside marriage in any representation, to sexual enjoyment, to the representation of desire itself."

As a result, the Commonwealth Book Censorship Board banned works considered seditious or obscene. This included Upsurge by JM Harcourt and Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence.

Today, the Australian Classification Board — established in 1970 to classify publications, films, and video games — can effectively ban material by refusing classification.

In March 2023, Gender Queer became the first book in a decade to be referred to the Australian Classification Board following a complaint to Queensland Police by conservative activist Bernard Gaynor.

A book cover showing an drawing of someone standing in water looking down to a flipped image of a person standing in a river

Gaynor wanted the book — along with four other titles — removed from circulation at Logan City Council library on the grounds it was sexually explicit.

The police referred the issue to the federal government and the book was called in for classification.

After a review, the Australian Classification Board classified Gender Queer as unrestricted, with the recommendation the book was suitable for readers aged 15 and over — a decision later upheld by the Classification Review Board.

Gaynor has taken the issue to the Federal Court in a case to be heard later in 2024.

In May, book banning hit the headlines again when Sydney's Cumberland City Council passed a vote to remove a same-sex parenting guide from its library's shelves.

A public outcry followed, and the council later overturned the decision , reinstating the book.

Shadow banning and other forms of censorship

While these cases make the news, more common — and less recognised — is an unofficial form of censorship that Hall calls "shadow banning".

This happens when someone, such as a writer, editor, librarian or teacher, chooses not to pursue a topic or promote a text because they fear the consequences.

"They don't want to get in trouble or be called out," Hall says.

In other circumstances, a library or a bookstore might preemptively remove a book from its shelves to avoid attacks — something YA author Will Kostakis says happens in Australia.

A smiling young man with brown hair and a navy t-shirts sits on a concrete ledge in a park

In one instance he describes, an independent Sydney school removed Heartstopper — a bestselling LGBTQI graphic novel series adapted for the screen by Netflix — from circulation "because they were worried about it being too queer".

The issue was not the book's content but concerns about attracting bad publicity.

"They're fearing backlash from fringe Facebook groups that target schools that have queer content in libraries," he says.

"Our gatekeepers don't want to ruffle feathers."

Kostakis, who tours schools giving author talks, says in the years between the same-sex marriage plebiscite and the COVID-19 pandemic there was a strong interest in LGBTQI narratives .

"Schools were very much like, 'Hey, we have queer kids in our audiences. We would like you to touch on this stuff so that they feel welcome.'"

Now, he says, at least once or twice a term schools say to him: "'Look, can you not mention that you're gay and not mention any of the queer themes in your books?'"

Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, traces the current wave of challenges to Gender Queer to the US midterm elections in 2022 after videos of school board meetings discussing the book went viral.

"It started this absolute wave of copycat book challenges … that quickly spread until, within a month or two, I couldn't keep track of how many challenges there had been because they were happening so quickly," e says.

Who gets harmed by book bans?

Restricting access to books with diverse perspectives harms vulnerable kids, argues Kostakis.

"I was somebody who hated himself," he says.

"My life started when I came out, and I came out too late. And I don't want that cycle to repeat."

He says the benefits of making these books widely accessible are two-fold.

"One, a queer kid will feel less alone when … they see somebody who is like them [in a book].

"But also, kids who aren't queer who read queer stories, when they encounter a queer person … they will understand that they are as vital a part of the human tapestry as the cisgender straight person is."

Portrait of an older black woman with long dreadlocks

In the US, works from the black literary canon, such as The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and The Colour Purple by Alice Walker — who Hall describes as "two of the greatest writers to ever live" — have been the target of book bans.

Hall is concerned about what limiting access to these books means for readers.

"I'm worried about our young people, particularly in the [American] south in rural communities where we see unchecked censorship, often where there are limited bookstores, where small libraries may not feel that they have the endorsement or the freedom to put books on shelves that have been challenged," she says.

"To be robbed of the right to read Morrison or Walker is a travesty."

The people fighting back

The fight against book bans is a political battle — and library staff are on the frontline.

In the last three years, dozens of libraries across the US have received bomb threats and other threats of violence.

In 2023, a library in Indiana closed for six days after an individual claiming to be armed threatened to enter the building and harm employees.

After a parent called New Jersey librarian Martha Hickson a " sex offender " at a school meeting in 2021 over her defence of Gender Queer, Hickson was sent hate mail and attacked on social media.

Despite having to take medical leave due to stress, Hickson spearheaded a campaign to fight challenges against five books in her library, which were ultimately retained.

"What librarians are doing by instinct is standing up, even when it is costing them their careers, their livelihoods, when they are being fired or let go or harassed, when they are facing bomb threats … when they are facing threats of bodily harm … for upholding the right to read," Hall says.

"As a librarian, you begin to understand that information not only wants to be free, but that access to information is a human right."

Students, too, are offering resistance.

When a Pennsylvania school district banned all the materials on a diversity list created in the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020, students responded by staging daily protests and starting a letter-writing campaign.

Their effort was successful, with the school board reversing its decision in September 2021.

Spates of book bans are also occurring in other countries, including Brazil and Poland.

"We're almost five years into a global censorship effort, and it hasn't slowed down; it's only speeding up," Hall says.

"I have a fear that if we're not able to stop it in its tracks right now, it will change the course of contemporary history in terms of what we're allowed to read, what we're allowed to say, and ultimately, how we act as civic actors, and also the course of our politics."

However, there is cause for optimism. Hall says young people today read and use the library more than previous generations.

"We have new generations that can't be put into a political corner … and I think that's scary for politicians and any type of legislator or decision-maker that wants to rule by force rather than by innovation or resonance or connection."

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How best to stop books being banned? Ban such bans.

The Minnesota anti-book-ban bill does not overlook parents’ rights.

Censorship of books goes against the promise of democracy. The American state of Minnesota has done well to ban book-bans.

While far-right groups—in mostly Republican-led states—wage a crusade to ban thousands of books in schools and public libraries across the country, Minnesota is pushing back. This state, governed by a former high-school teacher, has banned book bans.

The rise in attempts to censor Americans’ reading material is alarming. In 2023, book challenges surged to the highest level ever documented, according to the American Library Association, with efforts to censure more than 4,200 titles.

Also read: There Were 1,269 Efforts to Ban Books in 2022. These Were the Most Targeted.

The tactics are alarming too. Where previous attempts typically involved a parent or small group of parents challenging a single book title, now groups with clear political agendas are filing coordinated challenges against scores of books, all under the guise of parental rights.

The books targeted typically deal with issues of race, sexuality or gender expression. School and library board members have been shouted down at meetings, librarians have been harassed and threatened with violence, and groups have used the possibility of lawsuits and criminal charges as intimidation tactics.

Last year, while Florida was yanking books off its shelves—300 titles were removed in nearly a third of the state’s school districts—Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz moved to highlight the absurdity of the Sunshine State’s ban. He installed his own ‘Little Free Library’ at the Minnesota Capitol building, like the small pop-up libraries that dot the front of many homes nationwide. The difference: This one featured banned books.

It was a small gesture that sparked a larger idea: to stand against censorship with the full force of state law.

Also read: Free libraries are a big hope in need of policy support

“I knew we had to do more," Walz said just before signing the ban into law Friday. “I see book bans as dangerous. Throughout history, the people who want to ban books have never been on the right side." As a teacher, he said, “The freedom to read is super personal to me. We know how powerful it is for kids."

The law states in simple, unambiguous language, “a public library must not ban, remove or otherwise restrict access to a book or other material based solely on its viewpoint or the messages, ideas or opinions it conveys." It puts decisions on book selection firmly in the hands of experts: librarians—who have made books their life’s work.

That’s not such a novel idea. Librarians have been entrusted with such decisions since libraries began. It was only after extremist groups such as Moms for Liberty decided they could exploit this issue for political gain a few years ago that book challenges surged.

The Minnesota anti-book-ban bill does not overlook parents’ rights. Every library must have policies that allow parents or guardians to exercise their own judgment regarding their children.

Parents should be able to determine what their children are exposed to and raise them in accordance with their values. But when they seek instead to control access to books for all children, they cross a fundamental line, violating the rights of those students and their parents and the intellectual freedom that must be cultivated and exercised at a young age.

Also read: National Reading Day: History and significance

Their desire to impose their moral code, or religious beliefs on others does not—or at least should not—override an individual’s freedom. Does it matter that we’re talking about students here? Not according to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, who in 1982 issued an opinion for a divided court in Board of Education vs Pico that stated, “Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books."

Democratic Minnesota State Senator Steve Cwodzinski, who taught American government to high schoolers for more than 30 years, believes passionately in the power of books to open students’ minds to new ways of thinking. “I believe in the marketplace of ideas," said Cwodzinski, who sponsored the bill and struggled for its passage against Republican opponents who said it was unnecessary. Democrats hold a one-seat majority in the chamber.

“I would tell parents, try to trust the professionals," Cwodzinski said. “I’ve seen the spark go off in students when they find a book that speaks to them. And having a librarian guide them is a lot better than them just finding out on the internet alone."

Book bans are the most widespread form of censorship in the US and are antithetical to a democracy that depends on a thoughtful, informed citizenry. Controlling access to books and limiting materials considered controversial only by some are the first steps toward controlling thought. We should reject it soundly. ©bloomberg

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Is there a solution to book banning in Georgia?

W ith the recent banning of hundreds of books in Florida and Illinois passing groundbreaking legislation to outlaw such bans, where does Georgia stand in this political and cultural controversy?

Since 2022, Florida has made the process of banning and challenging books easier, this caused backlash that the state is now trying to correct due to abuse of the process. The ban on book bans in Illinois is the first of its kind, but its broad rules have confused advocates.

The state of Georgia has seen fewer book bans and challenges, but there have been no solutions to the issue. Daniel Cruz, a Free Expression and Education program coordinator at advocacy group PEN America, said that not all book bans are reported, so Georgia’s real status is unknown.

Daniel believes children need as much access to books as possible “Because you have rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. So not every book is for every person and that’s okay, but if you want to read a book, you should be able to read it.”

One notable book-banning case in Cobb County led to the firing of teacher Katie Rinderle, who read “My Shadow is Purple,” a picture book about gender fluidity, to her class.

In 2022, Georgia passed Senate Bill 226 that allows parents of a particular school to be the only voice suggesting a book ban in their school– making it harder for national organizations to challenge bans. This bill puts the power into the hands of the parents, but Tiffany Armstead-Flowers, an assistant teacher at Georgia State University who is working on a project to eliminate book deserts, argues that the decision should be in the hands of librarians and teachers who have the training to know what should and shouldn’t be banned.

According to Armstead-Flowers, “I think when you start putting decisions in the hands of people who don’t have the academic training to do it, it’s going to be a problem. It’s like having a nurse decide whether someone needs surgery or not, instead of a surgeon.”

Right-wing groups like Moms for Liberty have been working around the parameters of Bill 226 by working directly with parents to ban books. Often, these bans target books about LGBTQ+ people and people of color. Parents can submit lists of books they want banned, which requires the school system to remove and review the titles before a ban is approved or denied.

A poll by the American Library Association found that 67 percent of voters oppose removing books from school libraries. However, according to Armstead-Flowers, if people aren’t participating in voting, and if they aren’t looking out for these bans, then “somebody could come along and decide they don’t want children to read any books.”

Roberta Gardner, a reading and literacy education professor at Kennesaw State University, said one way to work towards solving this issue is to let students get more involved and teach them how to become more active in this discussion.

Gardner said students getting involved can often help push forward changes in attitude and policy towards book bans.

The post Is there a solution to book banning in Georgia? appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta .

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30 Banned Books Everyone Needs to Read in 2022
The top ten banned books of 2022
Top 100 banned books list 2022
Book ban attempts soared in 2022. Here are the 13 most targeted titles
Ultimate Guide of Top 50 Books to Read in 2022 + Top Banned Books
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COMMENTS

These Were the Most Banned Books in 2022
Here are the lists of banned books, according to each organization: American Library Association's List (January to December 2022) 1. Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe. 2. All Boys Aren't ...
Banned Book List: 3,362 Books Banned in 2022-2023
Download the index. The 11 Most Banned Books of the 2022-2023 School Year. See the complete Index of Banned Books from the 2021-2022 school year. PEN America defines a school book ban as any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by lawmakers or other ...
Book ban attempts soared in 2022. Here are the 13 most targeted ...
Overall, more than 2,500 unique titles were targeted in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans and restrictions since the association's Office for Intellectual Freedom began keeping ...
The 15 most banned books in America this school year
Here are 15 books PEN America says were most frequently banned from July 2021 through the first part of the 2022-23 school year. 1. "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe.
Most banned books of 2022: List includes 'Gender Queer,' 'Bluest Eye'
More than 1,200 challenges were compiled by the association in 2022, nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and by far the most since the association began keeping data 20 years ago, with ...
Here are the top books banned in 2022
Some books that were targeted included: "Beloved" by Toni Morrison. "A Court of Mist and Fury" by Sarah J. Maas. "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult. "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini ...
American Library Association Releases Preliminary Data on 2022 Book
Between January 1 and August 31, 2022, ALA documented 681 attempts to ban or restrict library resources, and 1,651 unique titles were targeted. In 2021, ALA reported 729 attempts to censor library resources, targeting 1,597 books, which represented the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling these lists more than 20 ...
Banned Book List: 1,648 Books in 2021-2022
The 2021-2022 banned book list is a searchable index of each documented book ban in the school year. The Index lists instances where students' access to books in school libraries and classrooms in the United States was restricted or diminished, for either limited or indefinite periods of time.
Banned Books Week: Which titles are being targeted and why
In fact, one in three books restricted by school districts in the past year featured LGBTQ themes or characters. Here are the 13 most challenged books of 2022, according to the ALA: "Gender Queer ...
Attempts to Ban Books Doubled in 2022
Of the 2,571 unique titles that drew complaints in 2022 — up from 1,858 books in 2021 — a vast majority were books by or about L.G.B.T.Q. people, or books by or about people of color, the ...
2023 Banned Books Update: Banned in the USA
Key Findings: During the first half of the 2022-23 school year PEN America's Index of School Book Bans lists 1,477 instances of individual books banned, affecting 874 unique titles, an increase of 28 percent compared to the prior six months, January - June 2022. That is more instances of book banning than recorded in either the first or second half of the 2021-22 school year.
The 50 most banned books in America
Here are the 50 most commonly banned books in America from the 2021-2022 school year, with data supplied by PEN America. 50. "And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. Simon ...
Over 1,600 books were banned in U.S. school districts in one year
Between July 2021 and June 2022, books were banned 2,532 times in public schools across the U.S., according to the nonprofit, which works to defend free expression. PEN American says 1,648 unique ...
Attempts to Ban Books Are Accelerating and Becoming More Divisive
To mark Banned Books Week, the American Library Association released a report on the rise in censorship efforts: In 2022, there have been attempts to restrict access to 1,651 titles.
Read the Books That Schools Want to Ban
Updated at 13:58 p.m. ET on February 3, 2022. Book banning is back. Texas State Representative Matt Krause recently put more than 800 books on a watch list, many of them dealing with race and ...
How many book bans were attempted in your state? Use this map to ...
Other states, like Pennsylvania and Michigan, had more than 50 restriction attempts last year. All the top 13 most challenged books in 2022 were accused of containing sexually explicit content ...
The top 13 banned books of 2022
In 2022, the American Library Association (ALA) recorded the most attempted book bans ever during its history of tracking censorship, and all of the 13 most-challenged books have one thing in common: They contain content deemed sexually explicit. Last year, 2,571 unique titles were challenged, a spike from 1,858 in 2021, the ALA found.
Book Banning Efforts Surged in 2021. These Titles Were the Most
Here are the ten most frequently challenged books of 2021, according to the library association. . 1. 'Gender Queer,' by Maia Kobabe. In this 2019 illustrated memoir, Kobabe, who is nonbinary ...
Requests to ban books hit a 21-year high. See which titles were the
Last year, the ALA recorded 1,050 requests to censor library books in 2022, a 70% increase over the 619 requests in 2021. As attempts to ban books have ramped up, so have the number of books ...
ALA: Number of attempts to ban or challenge books doubles in 2022
This year's report includes an expanded list of the 13 books most challenged in 2022, as there were the same number of banning efforts against several of the books. Overall, the ALA says that ...
Banned Book List: 1,648 Books in 2021-2022
From July to December 2022, PEN America found 1,477 instances of individual books banned, affecting 874 unique titles. This represents an increase from the prior six months, from January to June 2022, in which 1,149 instances of book banning were recorded. The bans occurred in 37 states, with Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah, and South Carolina ...
4 in 10 Books Banned in 2022 Are LGBTQ+-Related
A new report from nonprofit group PEN America released during Banned Books Week found that more than 1,600 books were banned in over 5,000 schools over the last school year, ... including the 93 anti-LGBTQ school policy bills introduced in 2022 thus far. "Banning books is just one arm of a larger, organized campaign to target and harass LGBTQ ...
Book banning in the United States (2021-present)
Starting in 2021, there have been a considerable number of books banned or challenged in parts of the United States. Most of the targeted books have to do with race, gender, and sexuality.Unlike most book challenges in the past, whereby parents or other stakeholders in the community would engage teachers and school administrators in a debate over a title, local groups have received support ...
Book bans surged in the latter half of 2023, PEN America reports
The report says more books were banned in those six months than in the 12 months of the 2022-2023 school year. Books Adults have a lot to say about book bans — but what about kids?
25 of America's most unexpectedly banned books
The persistent and widespread book banning campaigns have reached a peak in the first half of the 2023-2024 school year, which eclipsed the entirety of the previous school year, according to the latest from the . In the first six months of this school year, 4,349 books were banned, leading to more bans in fall 2023 than in the whole 2022-2023 ...
ALA 2023 report: Over 4,000 books were targeted in libraries
New censorship report finds that over 4,000 books were targeted in US libraries in 2023. NEW YORK— Bannings and attempted bannings of books soared again in the U.S. last year, continuing to set ...
States begin to push back on book bans
The laws also follow other efforts to push back on book bans in school districts in states such as Florida. There were more than 4,300 book bans across 23 states and 52 public school districts ...
Book bans in the US are at an all-time high. Will we see a similar
According to the American Library Association (ALA), 4,240 titles held in public libraries and schools were challenged in 2023, a 65 per cent increase from 2022. Around half of these books dealt ...
How best to stop books being banned? Ban such bans.
Also read: There Were 1,269 Efforts to Ban Books in 2022. These Were the Most Targeted. The tactics are alarming too. Where previous attempts typically involved a parent or small group of parents ...
Is there a solution to book banning in Georgia?
In 2022, Georgia passed Senate Bill 226 that allows parents of a particular school to be the only voice suggesting a book ban in their school- making it harder for national organizations to ...

These Were the Most Banned Books in 2022

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Book Banning Efforts Surged in 2021. These Titles Were the Most Targeted.

1. ‘Gender Queer,’ by Maia Kobabe

2. ‘ Lawn Boy ,’ by Jonathan Evison

3. ‘ All Boys Aren’t Blue ,’ by George M. Johnson

4. ‘ Out of Darkness ,’ by Ashley Hope Pérez

5. ‘ The Hate U Give ,’ by Angie Thomas

6. ‘ The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ,’ by Sherman Alexie

7. ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,’ by Jesse Andrews

8. ‘ The Bluest Eye ,’ by Toni Morrison

9. ‘This Book is Gay,’ by Juno Dawson

10. ‘Beyond Magenta,’ by Susan Kuklin

4 in 10 Books Banned in 2022 Are LGBTQ+-Related

Report: Last year ended with a surge in book bans

Adults have a lot to say about book bans — but what about kids?

American Library Association report says book challenges soared in 2023

To fight so-called book bans, some states are threatening to withhold funding

New censorship report finds that over 4,000 books were targeted in US libraries in 2023

Book bans in the US are at an all-time high. Will we see a similar spike in Australia?

What are the most banned books?

Do book bans happen in Australia?

Shadow banning and other forms of censorship

Who gets harmed by book bans?

The people fighting back

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