Story at a glance
- Book ban attempts increased by 33 percent during the 2022-23 school year, a new PEN America report shows.
- A total of 1,557 individual book titles were removed from school classrooms or public libraries last academic year due to objections to their content.
- The most book bans took place in Florida during that period, followed by Texas.
There were 3,362 book ban attempts in K-12 schools across the country last school year — 33 percent more than the year before, according to a new report from free expression group PEN America.
And those book ban attempts resulted in the removal of 1,557 individual titles.
Since 2020, there has been a surge in book challenges as classrooms have become a new ideological battleground.
Book ban attempts have reached record highs each year since the start of the pandemic, according to data from the American Library Association.
“The toll of the book banning movement is getting worse. More kids are losing access to books, more libraries are taking authors off the shelves, and opponents of free expression are pushing harder than ever to exert their power over students as a whole,” said Suzanne Nossel, chief executive officer of PEN America.
“Those who are bent on the suppression of stories and ideas are turning our schools into battlegrounds, compounding post-pandemic learning loss, driving teachers out of the classroom and denying the joy of reading to our kids. By depriving a rising generation of the freedom to read, these bans are eating away at the foundations of our democracy.”
PEN America notes in the report that its definition of a book ban includes “any action taken against a book based on its content.”
This could take the form of a parent or community challenge to a book, school administrative decisions to remove a book or threat or direct action from an elected official to control access to a previously available book.
More than 40 percent of all such actions last school year took place in 33 school districts in Florida, making it the state with the most book ban attempts during that time.
There were 1,406 book ban cases in the Sunshine State last year.
Texas, Missouri, Utah and Pennsylvania also had a high number of book ban attempts last academic year, with 625, 333, 281 and 168 book ban cases taking place in each state, respectively.
While most of the states where many book ban were attempted are conservative-leaning, book bans are taking place in Democratic-leaning states as well.
PEN America recorded at least one in 14 states that voted Democratic during the 2020 presidential election, including New York, California and Massachusetts.
The report shows that the most recent wave of book bans continues to target titles about racism or books with queer characters or characters of color.
Targeted books were most frequently stories written for young adults featuring a queer, nonbinary or female protagonist, the report notes.
Out of the over 3,000 books targeted last school year, there were 11 titles that were banned in 22 districts or more.
The most banned book was “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins, who also is the most frequently banned author in K-12 schools, according to the report.
The book, which tells the story of five troubled teenagers who fall into prostitution, was banned in schools across 33 districts.
The second most banned book was Toni Morrison’s first novel “The Bluest Eye” which faced challenges in 29 school districts last academic year, according to the report.
But a shift appears to be happening regarding what books are being challenged. During the last school year, banned books also included titles dealing with physical abuse, health and well-being, as well as grief and death.
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