And that's precisely what PEN America, a nonprofit group that has been advocating for literacy and free expression, has reported in the latest edition of its report on book bannings nationwide.
And it wasn't even close.
Released on November 1, "Banned in the USA: Beyond the Shelves" tallied 10,046 book bans across the U.S during the 2023-24 school year. That's a 200 percent increase as compared to the year prior. Since 2021, the nonprofit has logged nearly 16,000 total book bans across 43 states as activists, particularly far-right so-called "parental rights groups" ramped up challenges in school districts across the United States.
PEN defines a 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 government officials."
Florida alone accounted for 4,561 bans during the school year that ended June 30, 2024. Of the state's nearly 70 school districts, 33 were responsible for the bulk of the bans.
PEN points to new legislation such as Florida's House Bill 1069, which expanded the 2022 Parental Rights in Education Law (AKA "Don't Say Gay"), directing school districts to establish processes to review book objections and allowing parents to limit their student's access to materials in school and classroom libraries.
"The law requires that any book challenged for 'sexual conduct' must be removed during its review process," the report notes.
Iowa trailed Florida by nearly a thousand bans, reporting 3,761. Texas notched 538 bans, while there were 408 in Wisconsin, 121 in Virginia, and 100 in Kentucky.
From July 2023 through June, the report recorded 10,046 book ban cases across 29 states and 220 public school districts. By contrast, the prior academic year saw only 3,362 bans nationwide — a whopping 40 percent of which transpired in Florida.
Click here to read a cumulative list of book bans logged in Florida school districts since July 2021.
According to PEN, 4,231 individual titles were banned last school year, created by 2,662 authors and 195 illustrators. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult was the most commonly banned book, with objections popping up in more than 50 school districts — 20 of those in Florida. Other commonly banned books include Looking for Alaska by John Green, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Sold by Patricia McCormick, and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.
The authors with the most book challenges across their collections were Ellen Hopkins, Sarah J. Maas, Stephen King, Picoult, Green, Colleen Hoover, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, and Lauren Myracle. For instance, there were 523 book bans involving 19 of Hopkins' books. Seventy-four books by King accounted for 173 bans.
In its analysis of 1,091 book bans, PEN America found that among those titles, 57 percent involved sex or sex-related topics, 44 percent included characters or people of color, and 39 percent involved LGBTQ characters or people.
"This crisis is tragic for young people hungry to understand the world they live in and see their identities and experiences reflected in books," Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America's Freedom to Read program, said in a press release.
