Libraries & Librarians

New Data: PEN America Tracks Record School Book Bans (12,000) For a Single Year; Record Number of Unique Book Titles, at 7,000, Were Banned, as New State Laws, Artificial Intelligence, and Political Pressure Drives Censorship in Schools

October 5, 2026

PEN America today reported nearly 12,000 book bans in public schools nationwide during the 2025-2026 school year—the largest number in a single year. New state censorship laws accounted for much of the increase, coupled with the use of artificial intelligence to remove books en masse including popular manga series and other graphic novels.

In a report released to coincide with Banned Books Week, the latest accounting of book bans increased to 34,000 instances since PEN America began documenting the spreading book censorship crisis in schools in 2021.

Texas recorded the largest number of book bans during the 2025-2026 school year (over 8,100), surpassing Florida (over 3,200), due to the impact of a censorial Texas law, SB13, which bans broad categories of books in schools. Florida had been No. 1 for three consecutive years.

Most Banned Titles and Authors (PEN America 2026)

The writers and free expression organization also reported a record number of unique titles banned in the last school year—more than 7,000—which impacted more than 4,000 authors, illustrators and translators, also a record number. In addition, researchers identified 114 school districts that had banned books over the year, the highest number ever for a single year according to PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans.

Patricia McCormick’s 2006 award-winning young adult novel Sold, which tells the fictional story of a teenager from Nepal who is sold into sexual slavery, was No. 1 among the most frequently banned books during the school year. The most banned author for the second year in a row was Stephen King.

McCormick, a trained journalist who did extensive research for the book, reacted to the news saying: “Mostly I feel angry on behalf of the women that I interviewed for the story: young women who’ve been sold into sexual slavery, who told their stories so the world could know what was going on. To hear people, or book banners, say that their accounts are pornographic is so disrespectful to them.”

McCormick continues, “It’s also really disrespectful to the students who seek out that book. There are kids who need a book like that because they have some kind of sexual exploitation experience in their own life, and there’s something about reading a story about someone who’s six degrees away from you — a girl in Nepal — that inspires a certain amount of empathy and understanding that you might not have for yourself.”

Analysis showed alarming restrictions on popular types of books like young adult fiction and manga. More than 90% of young adult titles banned during the 2025-2026 school were fiction. Three manga authors are named among the list of most commonly banned authors, due to the heightened scrutiny of these books: Atsushi Ohkubo (Soul Eater, Fire Force); Hajime Isayama (Attack on Titan); and Rumiko Takahashi (Inuyasha). Manga and young adult titles are exceptionally popular with young readers— the kind of books that help young people fall in love with reading.

“When reading for pleasure is in decline across all ages, bans on popular and engaging titles are exceptionally tragic,” said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program. “Schools should be doing everything possible to connect kids with reading by introducing them to engaging stories and formats. Instead, many are doing the opposite, banning books that help kids see themselves in literature, deepen their understanding and empathy of others, and develop their imaginations.”

Florida and Texas together recorded the vast majority of the book bans largely due to political pressure and fear of political targeting. In Texas, a 2025 law, SB 13, caused many districts to ban books in droves for fear of not complying with the confusing legislation. In Florida, pressure directed from Florida politicians at one district – Hillsborough – to remove a list of 55 titles led to several other districts subsequently removing a similar list of titles.

The rise may also be attributed to the use of AI to identify books to ban. Particularly in Texas, where state legislation was difficult to understand and apply, AI was used to identify books for removal. In several cases, AI recommended banning books that were banned elsewhere, creating a snowball effect for frequently banned books while the expertise of librarians and the communities they serve are ignored.

The reported increases in bans in Texas and Florida also reflect the effort to document previously invisible bans through public information requests, led by grassroots allies of PEN America, the Texas Freedom to Read Project and the Florida Freedom to Read Project. These advocates make it possible to go beyond publicly available data which has dwindled in a chilled political climate and with waning public attention. These records requests allow this report to record thousands of bans that were otherwise invisible.

“Confusing and vague state book ban laws and chilling directives from state politicians have created chaos and fear,” said Philomena Polefrone, senior manager in the Freedom to Read program. “Unsure how to comply, districts are removing books en masse, sometimes with the ‘help’ of crude AI tools that only make the problem worse. Increasingly, these bans are invisible. Thousands of these cases are only recorded because of public information requests by Florida Freedom to Read and Texas Freedom to Read. Books paid for by taxpayers are being removed from shelves and the local community may not even know about it.”