Themes of race, racism, sexuality and gender identity remain the most common reasons why the books were challenged. American schools have banned nearly 12,000 books over the past year, as per a new report. 11,982 books were banned in public schools in the 2025-26 school year, according to a study by PEN America. The report also highlighted that 7,370 unique titles were banned.
As per the report, many of the bans took place in Florida and Texas, where restrictive laws have been passed and both politicians and conservative activists have pushed for removals. PEN has also found that school district administrators rely increasingly on AI to determine which books should be pulled. The organisation highlighted that the majority of book bans came from just two states: Texas and Florida.
The most commonly banned book list for the 2025-2026 school year included many notable repeat titles: Sold by Patricia McCormick; Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson; several titles by Ellen Hopkins like Crank and Identical ; The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood; and Looking for Alaska by John Green.
“More than 90% of Young Adult titles banned during the 2025-2026 school were fiction, stripping young readers away from the books that help them fall in love with reading,” the study noted. “Both states have become blueprints for educational censorship, where special interest groups, state laws, and politicians have converged to pressure school districts to restrict and remove access to books,” it said. “School libraries make knowledge and ideas available, ensure books remain available for all regardless of personal or political ideologies, and open gateways to stories that inform, challenge, and reflect the realities of the world back to readers,” the PEN report, titled “Banned in the USA,” read.
