Visualizing the mass censorship of books in American schools

Incidents of individual books being banned in schools across the nation have nearly tripled in the past academic year, cumulatively censoring more than 4,000 unique book titles. PEN America, a nonprofit organization aimed at protecting the freedom of expression in the United States, releases an annual Index of book banning incidents across the country.

Since time immemorial, books and humanity have had a tumultuous relationship. We’ve burnt them, smuggled them across borders to save them, exiled incendiary authors (and lost the paperwork of exile), and we have also banned them. Regardless of the era, restricting access to books has almost always been seen as an attempt to censor and control the intellectual freedom of individuals. “It is the books that have long fought for a place on the shelf that are being targeted,” in PEN America's words.

A “book ban” in the Index is any incident where action is taken against a book because of its contents, leading to restricted access. Each book ban happens in response to a “challenge” by a parent, community member, lawmakers or any administrative decisions. Books are removed from the shelf, investigated (with an opaque process) and eventually banned in libraries, classrooms or both.

All the books challenged in the Index are books that were originally chosen by teachers, librarians and other educators as part of the educational offerings, but then overridden by administrators or community members because of the book’s content.

PEN America cautions against this trend of soft censorship, through the “targeted weeding” of ideologies, from libraries and schools, which occurs when certain titles are weeded from collections based on content and/or based on an ideological basis.

Florida has topped the list in book bannings for two consecutive years, banning almost 3000 more individual books last year than the academic year before. Texas, not to be outdone, has retained its spot as one of the top three states since 2021, while this is Iowa’s first year making it to the big leagues.

A large proportion of book banning incidents are stuck “pending investigation”. The American Library Association and the National Coalition Against American Censorship release best-practices which state that a book must remain on the shelf while it is being investigated. In reality, books are removed almost immediately after they are challenged and remain inaccessible for the entire duration of prolonged investigations.

Florida’s strong lead in last year’s school book bans is likely due to the HB-1069 law that “bans Florida schools from having books that depict or describe "sexual conduct" or "is inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used," according to CBS News. Books can be removed from libraries or classrooms on the complaint of any resident of the school’s home county.

The list of books and authors banned last year reads like a veritable who’s who of not just the Young Adult genre, but also of the literary landscape in general. Students will no longer have access to cult-favorite fictions like John Green’s Fault in Our Stars, almost the complete repertoire of Cassandra Clare's works, everyone’s favorite vampires from the Twilight series or even the iconic Princess Diaries books - personally, the most shocking of the bans.

Author Ellen Hopkins, banned 523 times this year alone, addressed the mass banning of her books, which started in 2022, in an article published by ACLU Southern California.

“Some of the characters are queer, of color, and/or spiritually seeking, but the favored excuse is “sexual explicitness.” I have four novels for adult readers that could be termed steamy. My YA novels never approach that level, though they do have sexual situations, including assault and abuse, as well as young love," she said. She adds that she writes truthfully about situations that teens experience regularly because she respects their “intellect, curiosity and sophistication.”

Since 2021, Alison Bechdel, creator of the influential Bechdel Test, has already been banned 30 times across multiple states, primarily for her graphic novel, A Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Putting aside the waning delight in reading for leisure that banning these books will bring, censoring the important works of huge authors such as Toni Morrison, Khaled Hosseini and Maya Angelou will dampen exposure to racial perspectives, lived experiences, sexuality, and identity politics - topics that are important for an enriching and multidimensional education.

If you are curious about the works that were banned the most, the chart below displays the top ten banned books for the past three academic years.

Last year's most banned book was Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, a book that unfolds through the premise of a school shooting.

“Having the most banned book in the country is not a badge of honor – it’s a call for alarm. Nineteen Minutes is banned not because it’s about a school shooting, but the because of a single page that depicts a date rape and uses anatomically correct words for the human body,” says Picoult as reported by PEN America. “It is not gratuitous or salacious, and it is not – as the book banners claim – porn.”