In 2025, book bans in schools are more common than ever. “Never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country,” says a new report from PEN America, “The Normalization of Book Banning: Banned in the USA, 2024-2025.” “Never before have so many states passed laws or regulations to facilitate the banning of books, including bans on specific titles statewide. Never before have so many politicians sought to bully school leaders into censoring according to their ideological preferences, even threatening public funding to exact compliance. Never before has access to so many stories been stolen from so many children.”

PEN America, which advocates for freedom of expression, defines a school book ban “as any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by governmental officials, that leads to a book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.” These bans “infringe on the rights of students, professional educators, and authors,” the report says, noting that teachers and librarians have chosen books for their educational value.

The book-banning trend has been growing since 2021, PEN America reports. Over the last four school years, book bans occurred in 45 states and 451 public school districts.

Many of the banned books have LGBTQ+ content. “Since book challenges and removals exploded in 2021, books depicting same-sex and trans identities have been conflated as inherently ‘sexual,’” the report states. “In sexualizing LGBTQ+ people, swaths of literature have been removed under the premise of removing ‘inappropriate’ or ‘obscene’ books.” Some of these titles are children’s picture books such as And Tango Makes Three, Everywhere Babies, The Family Book, Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, and The Purim Superhero. Among the most banned titles in 2024-2025 were young adult books Last Night at the Telegraph Club, about a young Chinese American lesbian, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, in which one of the straight protagonist’s best friends is a gay teen. And queer Black author George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue has become the most challenged book in the nation in the past few years.

In all, during the 2024-2025 school year, PEN America recorded 6,870 instances of book bans across 23 states and 87 public school districts, affecting 3,752 titles. They represented the work of 2,308 authors, 243 illustrators, and 38 translators.

Below, we look at the 10 states that had the most instances of book bans.

Florida

The state led by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis gets the dubious distinction of most book bans during the 2024-2025 school year. Florida saw 2,304 instances of book bans, with 33 school districts that banned at least one title.

Texas

Texas, not surprisingly, ranks high (low?) as well. The state had 1,781 instances of book bans and seven districts that banned a book.

Tennessee

Tennessee had 1,622 instances of book bans and eight districts that banned a book.

Idaho

Idaho had 150 instances of book bans, although just one district banned any book.

Iowa

Iowa had 113 instances of book bans and four districts that banned a book.

Virginia

Virginia saw 97 instances of book bans, with two districts banning at least one title.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania had 73 book ban instances, and three districts banned a book.

Georgia

Georgia had 43 instances of book bans and three districts banning at least one book.

Utah

Utah saw 26 book ban instances but just one district banning a book.

Colorado

Colorado had 20 instances of book bans and two districts banning a book.

Department of Defense

It’s not just individual states that are affected, though. There were 590 books removed from Department of Defense Education Activity schools on military bases this year, affecting schools in seven states, two territories, and 11 countries. The department used Donald Trump’s anti-transgender and anti-diversity executive orders as justification for the removals, although none of the orders specifically targeted books. A lawsuit against the removal of books and other content is pending.

Statewide bans

South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah have set up mechanisms to trigger statewide book bans. Tennessee’s has not been used yet, and because of the difficulty in quantifying the effects in South Carolina and Utah, the books affected there are not used in PEN America’s state totals. Still, this is a worrisome trend, according to the group.

Fighting back

Where there are attempts to ban books, there is resistance, PEN America notes. “Of the 87 districts impacted by book bans this year, 70 contained evidence of a public response against censorship, whether from individuals, organized groups, or whole communities,” the report says. To fight book bans, the group recommends contacting elected officials, speaking out on Freedom to Read Day (October 11), and then continuing to speak out and to reach out to organizations campaigning against bans.