New Delhi: PEN America reported the highest number of recorded book bans in a single year in America’s public schools since 2021. The number hit 11,982 during the 2025-2026 school year.
Books about race and racism, LGBTQ+ people or characters, people or characters of colour, and sex have emerged as the most consistently banned books over the past five years, according to PEN America.
The non-profit organisation, headquartered in New York, advocates for free expression in the US and worldwide, through the advancement of literature and human rights.
Record number of book titles banned
The report found that 7,370 unique titles were banned this year, with over 4,500 new titles added to the list after last year. This is the highest number of books banned in a year. Works of over 4,000 illustrators, authors, and translators were affected in the process.
With 114 names on the list, this year also saw the highest number of school districts conducting book bans in the country.
Texas and Florida topped the charts in terms of the number of book bans carried out this year, with 8,193 and 3,212 bans in the two states, respectively. The report alleges a convergence between special interest groups, state laws, and political parties in removing access to books.
At the same time, the report claims, “These states also have by far the most complete record of book bans, owing to public records requests from grassroots organizations, the Florida Freedom to Read Project and the Texas Freedom to Read Project.”
Political pressure across states, both in the form of legislation as well as when “politicians increasingly pressure districts to ban books by sending threatening letters, putting administrators through hearings, or other measures that lead to overcompliance,” the report claims.
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Fiction, young adult books, and AI involvement
Similar to trends from previous years, young adult (YA) books made up more than half the books banned this year. More than 80 per cent of the books banned were fiction titles. “More than 90% of Young Adult titles banned during the 2025-2026 school year were fiction,” the report added, “stripping young readers away from the books that help them fall in love with reading.”
A trend observed this year, although not entirely new, was the increased use of AI in evaluating which books were to be banned. Highlighting the loopholes of high reliance on AI, the report claims, “records show that generative AI/generative AI chatbots repeatedly recommend removing books, not because those books are obscene under the prevailing legal standard, but instead because other districts have banned them.”
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 were some of the books most commonly banned in the 2025-26 school year.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)