Banned books rise 200% in U.S. schools, says PEN American

The CEO and the leadership at PEN American have been widely criticized by authors and others in the literary community for its response to the Israeli-Hamas war

Books banned by public schools across the nation have risen by 200% in the last year, says PEN American in its latest report issued Nov. 1. PEN America is a non-profit headquartered in New York which advocates for the protection of free expression.

During the 2023-2024 school year, PEN America said it recorded 10,046 instances of book bans. In 43% of those cases, books were completely prohibited from access, not pending a review nor available with newly imposed restrictions.

“Book bans have predominantly targeted books with themes related to race, sexuality, & gender identity. Increasingly, censored books depict topics young people confront in the real world, including experiences with substance abuse, mental health concerns, & sexual violence,” the report said.

Pen America said book bans occurred in 29 states and 220 public school districts. The group says 4,231 unique titles were banned during the 2023-2024 school year, impacting 2,662 authors, 195 illustrators, and 31 translators.

Virginia is the fifth state with the largest amount of banned books. In 2023, 387 books were targeted for ban in Virginia, more than any other East Coast state except for Florida where there were 2,672. 

PEN America has been following and compiling reports of books bans in U.S. schools since 2021. “Banned Books Week” was launched in 1982 by the American Library Association.

On Sept. 26, 2023, Arlington County and Arlington Public Library became an official Book Sanctuary. The Arlington County Board adopted a resolution in support of Arlington Public Library declaring Arlington County libraries as Book Sanctuaries, committed to protecting banned and challenged books and the right of the residents of Arlington to read the books they choose without fear of suppression.

Much ado about nothing

Not everyone is in agreement about the definition of “banned” though. Max Eden is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and an affiliate of AEI’s James Q. Wilson Program in K–12 Education Studies, where he focuses on education reform, specifically K–12 and early childhood education.

In September 2023 he wrote an Op-Ed stating: “If you take a close look, you might come to the same conclusions we did: that this divisive debate has been manufactured for partisan purpose—both on the part of those pushing free expression and those pushing parents’ rights—that most “banned” books aren’t really banned, and that when they are, it’s mostly reasonable.”

His Op-Ed is below.

In a report for the Education Freedom Institute, AEI said it found that “almost three-quarters of the books that PEN listed as banned were still available in school libraries in the same districts from which PEN claimed they had been banned.”

According to AEI, if a book has been temporarily removed from shelves for review and then deemed acceptable and put back, it has been “banned.” If a book is moved from a school library to a guidance counselor’s office, it has been “banned.” If parent permission is required, it has been “banned.” If a book is moved from one section of a school library to a section for older students, it has been “banned.”

“All of this is a recipe for a great civics lesson. So let librarians and booksellers have Banned Books Week. I propose that civics and history teachers deepen student thinking and engagement with a parallel “First Amendment Week.” Learning objectives would include understanding the Constitutional protection of free speech and how that squares with book bans and other forms of expression, and analyzing and evaluating arguments for and against restricting certain books in schools,” said Robert Podiscio of AEI.

The CEO of PEN America, Suzanne Nossel, announced last week she will be stepping down after more than a decade due to criticism and backlash the group has received because of some authors affiliated with PEN America favoring Israel and downplaying atrocities against Palestinian writers and journalists.

AP’s report on that controversy can be read here.