The number of book bans in U.S. public schools in the 2023-24 school year tripled from the previous year, according to a new memo from literary nonprofit PEN America timed to mark the beginning of Banned Books Week.
More than 10,000 books were banned during the past school year, the organization said. Two states, Florida and Iowa, were responsible for 8,000 of the bans, the result of laws passed during the summer of 2023: HB 1069 in Florida and SF 496 in Iowa.
PEN America said that it expects an uptick in book bans in Utah, South Carolina, and Tennessee, all states that recently passed new laws or regulations that would make it easier to remove books from schools.
Popular targets for book bans include Toni Morrison’s Beloved and The Bluest Eye, PEN America said, as well as titles by “targeted authors” including Sarah J. Maas, Stephen King, and Ellen Hopkins. The group said that it had added several books to its Index of School Book Bans that had not appeared before, including Alex Haley’s Roots, Terry McMillan’s How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer.
PEN America’s memo paints a different picture than a recent report from the American Library Association, which found that book challenges and bans in the first eight months of 2024 had decreased from the same time period in the previous year.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
