The most commonly banned books in U.S. schools include LGBTQ titles, international bestsellers, teen romantasy novels and a 1962 classic, according to a new report that compares modern-day censorship to Cold War-era McCarthyism.
More than 6,800 book bans were enacted during the 2024-25 school year in 87 public school districts across 23 states, according to a report released Wednesday by PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free expression. The report was released ahead of Banned Books Week, which starts Sunday.
“Censorship pressures have expanded and escalated,” Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, said in a news release. “A disturbing ‘everyday banning’ and normalization of censorship has worsened and spread over the last four years.”
The organization’s annual “Banned in the USA” report says the current environment of “unfettered book banning is reminiscent of the Red Scare of the 1950s.” It 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 governmental officials” that leads to the book being removed or restricted.
The latest report found that 3,752 unique titles were affected by bans in the school year that ended in June. The most banned titles included “A Clockwork Orange” and “Wicked,” while the most banned authors included Stephen King, Sarah J. Maas and Jodi Picoult. More than 80% of all bans originated in just three states: Florida, Texas and Tennessee.
This past school year saw fewer total bans than in 2023-24, at more than 10,000, though the number is far above where it was in 2021-22 (more than 2,500 bans), when PEN America first started to compile an annual report. Since July 2021, PEN America has tracked 22,810 book bans across 45 states.
One reason the total number of book bans may have dipped this year is that some titles are being pre-emptively taken off the shelves.
“This functions as a form of ‘obeying in advance’ to anticipated restrictions from the state or administrative authorities, rooted in fear or simply a desire to avoid topics that might be deemed controversial,” the report states.
Another potential reason, as author Malinda Lo pointed out, is that previously banned titles have not returned to shelves. Lo, whose book “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” was No. 4 on PEN America’s new list, said on Instagram that her 2021 novel made the cut “partly because all of the usual titles like ‘Gender Queer’ have already been banned and removed.”
“Once a book is banned, it’s gone,” she wrote on Wednesday. “This is why we have to keep fighting these attacks on our first amendment rights.”
“Gender Queer,” a graphic memoir that debuted in 2019, was No. 1 on PEN America’s Most Banned Books List in 2022, though it didn’t even make the top 15 on this year’s list.
Books with LGBTQ themes and characters — like “Gender Queer” and “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” — are consistently among the most banned books highlighted in the annual reports of PEN America and the American Library Association, and this year is no different.
Here are the 15 most banned books this past school year as tracked by PEN America, ranked in order of those banned by the most public school districts across the country:
‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess
Burgess’ dystopian satire about a sociopathic, Beethoven-obsessed teen gang leader was banned in 23 districts in the 2024-25 school year. The 1962 novel was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film by Stanley Kubrick in 1971 and was named one of Time’s 100 best English-language novels and one of Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels.
‘Breathless’ by Jennifer Niven
Niven’s 2020 novel is a coming-of-age love story that was banned in 20 school districts. On her website, the bestselling author describes “Breathless” as “the book I needed when I was sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. A frank take on sex and love, parental divorce, finding yourself, and the importance of writing your story. Of writing your life.”
‘Sold’ by Patricia McCormick
McCormick’s young-adult novel, about a girl from Nepal who is sold into sexual slavery in India, was banned in 20 school districts in the last school year. This 2006 title was a National Book Award finalist and was on the Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of the Year list and the ALA’s Top Ten Books for Young Adults list.
‘Last Night at the Telegraph Club’ by Malinda Lo
Lo’s young-adult historical novel about love and duty in 1950s San Francisco was banned in 19 school districts in the 2024-25 school year. The critically acclaimed 2021 novel won a long list of awards, including a National Book Award, Stonewall Book Award and Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.
‘A Court of Mist and Fury’ by Sarah J. Maas
This bestselling adult romantasy novel, which was banned in 18 districts in the 2024-25 school year, is the second book in Maas’ wildly popular “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series. Maas, the only author with more than one title on this top 15 list, also has the distinction of being one of the most banned authors this year, with 162 total bans, behind only Stephen King and “Crank” author Ellen Hopkins.
‘Crank’ by Ellen Hopkins
Hopkins’ 2004 young-adult novel was banned in 17 school districts. On her website, the author revealed this bestseller is loosely based on her “older daughter’s story of addiction to crystal meth.” She said “Crank” began as “a personal exploration of the ‘why’s’ behind my daughter’s decisions, and what part I might have played in them.”
‘Forever…’ by Judy Blume
Blume’s award-winning 1975 young-adult novel, which was banned in 17 districts in the last school year, has been a target of censorship for 50 years, according to PEN America. Blume said she wrote the book — which was named one of NPR’s 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels and Time’s 100 Best YA Books of All Time — because her daughter “asked for a story about two nice kids who have sex without either of them having to die.”
‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ by Stephen Chbosky
Chbosky’s 2009 coming-of-age novel about an observant “wallflower” navigating the “strange world between adolescence and adulthood” was banned in 17 school districts in the 2024-25 school year. The No. 1 New York Times bestseller — which deals with topics including first dates, family drama, sex, drugs and suicide — was adapted into a 2012 film starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller.
‘Wicked’ by Gregory Maguire
This No. 1 New York Times bestseller, which debuted in 1995 and is a reimagined prequel to “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” was banned in 17 school districts. The story of “Wicked,” however, is perhaps best known due to its adaptation into a Tony-winning Broadway musical and an Oscar-winning musical film starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ by George M. Johnson
Johnson’s 2020 memoir-manifesto about coming of age as a queer Black man was banned in 16 districts in the last school year, and it also topped the ALA’s list of 10 most challenged library books of 2024. In an interview with NBC News last year, Johnson said the real book censorship danger lies in the “soft-banning”: “We can track the books that are being banned, but we can’t track books that are not being ordered.”
‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ by Sarah J. Maas
The first book in Maas’ internationally bestselling five-book romantasy series was, like the remaining books on this list, banned in 16 school districts. The central character in 2015’s “A Court of Thorns and Roses” is 19-year-old Feyre, a moral huntress who is dragged to a magical land and falls for her immortal captor.
‘Damsel’ by Elana K. Arnold
This dark and twisted fairy tale, a 2019 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book, is, on the surface, about a damsel who is rescued from a dragon by a handsome prince. Prior to “Damsel,” Arnold’s book “What Girls Are Made Of” was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature.
‘The DUFF’ by Kody Keplinger
In Keplinger’s 2010 young-adult novel, 17-year-old Bianca discovers her high school’s “slimy school hottie” has given her an offensive nickname — DUFF, or Designated Ugly Fat Friend — but she still ends up in a “closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship” with him. Keplinger was only 17 herself when she wrote this bestselling book, which was adapted into a 2015 film.
‘Nineteen Minutes’ by Jodi Picoult
This No. 1 New York Times bestseller is about the aftermath of a school shooting in a small New Hampshire town. Published in 2007, this is one of 29 novels written by Picoult, whose other works include “My Sister’s Keeper,” “Small Great Things” and “The Pact.”
‘Storm and Fury’ by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Armentrout’s 2019 romantasy novel is the first book in her three-book “Harbinger” series. “Storm and Fury” is centered on 18-year-old Trinity Marrow, who “may be going blind” but “can see and communicate with ghosts and spirits,” according to Armentrout’s website.
