The advocacy group PEN America recently found 3,362 individual book bans by schools K-12 impacting 1,557 titles. As a result of the new “don’t say gay” Parental Rights in Education law limiting discussions regarding gender and sexual identity in the K-12 public education system, Florida leads the country in most book bans — accounting for 40 percent of book bans.
The 2022-23 banned book list includes The Bluest Eye, by iconic author Toni Morrison, as well as young adult movies so popular they became films or tv series.
Gender Queer: A Memoir, which was the most banned book in the 2021-2022 school year, was fifth on the list for 2022-23. However, PEN America notes that the book has the most bans in total across both school years with 67.
Another report by PEN America disclosed a 33 percent hike in book bans across U.S. public schools during the 2022-23 school year compared to the previous year.
“The toll of the book banning movement is getting worse. More kids are losing access to books, more libraries are taking authors off the shelves, and opponents of free expression are pushing harder than ever to exert their power over students as a whole,” said Suzanne Nossel, chief executive officer of PEN America, in a release about that report. “Those who are bent on the suppression of stories and ideas are turning our schools into battlegrounds, compounding post-pandemic learning loss, driving teachers out of the classroom and denying the joy of reading to our kids. By depriving a rising generation of the freedom to read, these bans are eating away at the foundations of our democracy."
You can read the entire report on school book bans and access a searchable database at www.pen.org.
Below are the top 11 books banned by schools in the 2022-23 school year.
10. (tie) ‘Empire of Storms’
Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Moss has 22 bans.
“The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius as war looms on the horizon. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves increasingly at odds with those who don’t.” – Sarah J. Maas
10. (tie) ‘Identical’
Identical by Ellen Hopkins has 22 bans.
“Kaeleigh and Raeanne are 16-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for US Congress. Everything on the surface seems fine, but underneath run very deep and damaging secrets.” – Simon & Schuster
9. ‘Crank (Crank Series)’
Crank (Crank Series) by Ellen Hopkins has 23 bans.
“In Crank you’ll meet Kristina—and Kristina will meet crank.” – Simon & Schuster
7. (tie) ‘Sold’
Sold by Patricia McCormick has 24 bans.
“To research Sold, I traveled to India and Nepal, where I interviewed the women of Calcutta’s red-light district and girls who have been rescued from the sex trade.” – Patricia McCormick
7. (tie) ‘Thirteen Reasons Why’
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher has 24 bans.
“Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who died by suicide two weeks earlier.” – Penguin Random House
6. ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky has 25 bans.
“The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood.” – MTV Books
5. ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’
Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe has 26 bans.
“Started as a way to explain to eir {Kobabe’s] family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.” – Oni Press
3. (tie) ‘A Court of Mist and Fury’
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas has 27 bans.
“Feyre survived Amarantha’s clutches to return to the Spring Court–but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can’t forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin’s people.” – Sarah J. Maas
3. (tie) ‘Looking for Alaska’
Looking for Alaska by John Green has 27 bans.
“Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet François Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.” – Penguin Random House
2. ‘The Bluest Eye’
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison has 29 bans.
“In Morrison’s acclaimed first novel, Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.” – Penguin Random House
1. ‘Tricks’
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins has 33 bans.
“Five troubled teenagers fall into prostitution as they search for freedom, safety, community, family, and love in this #1 New York Times bestselling novel from Ellen Hopkins.” – Simon & Schuster
