Report shows banned non-fiction books doubled over last school year in US | Books
A new report finds that the number of nonfiction books banned in the United States has doubled in the 2024-2025 school year.
PEN America analyzed 3,743 unique books removed from school libraries and classrooms from July to June and found that more than 1,100 of them, or 29%, were nonfiction, more than double the previous year.
The most common themes in banned nonfiction books were activism and social movements. “These titles help students learn about their rights and the stories of those who confront injustice and join social movements to change the world around them,” said McKenna Samson, co-author of the report.
Banned nonfiction books included Struggles for LGBTQ+ Youth by Martha Lundin, Aztec, Inca, and Maya, Night by Elizabeth Baquedano, and Night, a Nazi death camp memoir by Elie Wiesel.
“This latest trend demonstrates an embrace of anti-intellectualism that undermines public knowledge by devaluing education and expertise,” said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s freedom to read program. “This is another example of how censorship has spread widely and led to the removal of books of all kinds, efforts to create fear and mistrust in our public education system.”
The year also saw the percentage of bans on sex education books, such as You Know, Sex: Bodies, Gender, Puberty, and Other Things by Cory Silverberg, double.
The findings also showed that marginalized communities continue to be overrepresented in targeted books, with high numbers featuring LGBTQ+ characters (39%) and people of color (44%).
Books about death and grief made up 48% of the books, while books about empowerment and self-esteem made up 39%.
Fiction books at risk last year included dystopian dramas such as Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, as well as other books including Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Sapphire’s Push.
Since PEN America began documenting book bans in 2021, more than 23,000 examples have been recorded.
A report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress last year showed that one-third of federally tested 12th graders lack basic reading skills. Scores were their worst for three decades.
The report follows findings from the American Library Association that showed books banned in all US libraries will rise to a record high in 2025. Similarly, 40% of challenged books included representations of LGBTQ+ people or people of color.
