- Songs That Became Anthems Completely By Accident - October 19, 2025
- How Vinyl Records Made Their Unlikely Comeback - October 19, 2025
- The Real Meaning Behind Those Childhood Lullabies - October 19, 2025
Behind the Most Censored American Books
The Staggering Reality Behind Book Banning Statistics
You might think book banning was something that happened decades ago, but here’s a shocking truth: America just witnessed over 10,000 instances of book bans in the 2023-2024 school year alone. That’s not a typo – we’re talking about more than ten thousand separate acts of censorship in a single year. Since 2021, PEN America has documented nearly 16,000 book bans in public schools nationwide, a number not seen since the Red Scare McCarthy era of the 1950s. The scale is mind-boggling when you consider that each ban represents someone deciding what millions of children can and cannot read. Nineteen titles were banned in 50 or more school districts nationwide, with the most commonly banned title being “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult. These aren’t obscure publications – they’re mainstream books by bestselling authors that have somehow become the center of America’s cultural battleground.
Why “Nineteen Minutes” Became Public Enemy Number One
Bestselling novelist Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes,” about the moments leading up to a school shooting, was the most frequently banned book with 98 instances. Think about that for a moment – a book exploring one of America’s most pressing social issues is being systematically removed from schools. The novel doesn’t glorify violence; it examines the complex psychological factors that lead to tragedy. But apparently, discussing the reality of school shootings makes administrators more uncomfortable than pretending they don’t happen. The emotionally charged novel grabs readers from page one and features the return of beloved Picoult characters, set in a small town in the wake of a horrific school shooting. The irony is palpable – we ban books about school shootings while doing active shooter drills with the same students we’re “protecting” from literary discussions about violence. It’s like putting a band-aid on a broken dam and calling it flood prevention.
The LGBTQ+ Content That Terrifies School Boards
The vast majority of books targeted for removal feature LGBTQ+ characters or characters of color, with book bans overwhelming affecting books about race and racism, LGBTQ+ people and characters. Nearly half of filings – 43 percent – targeted titles with LGBTQ characters or themes, while the top reason people challenged books was “sexual” content at 61 percent of challenges. But here’s what’s really happening behind the scenes: many challengers wrote that reading books about LGBTQ people could cause children to alter their sexuality or gender. This reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of how identity works – as if sexual orientation were contagious through literature. Children are constantly exposed to heterosexuality and cisgender identity at school through “Mr.” and “Mrs.” titles for teachers and enforced boys and girls bathrooms, yet banning a book about a prince loving a prince while allowing one about a prince loving a princess is clearly discrimination. The double standard is so obvious it’s almost comical, except for the real harm it causes to LGBTQ+ students who need to see themselves represented in literature.
The Organized War Against Reading
The data shows that the majority of book censorship attempts are now originating from organized movements, with pressure groups and government entities including elected officials, board members, and administrators initiating 72% of demands to censor books. This isn’t grassroots parental concern – it’s coordinated political warfare. One group compiles a list of books then shares that list through social media with others to mount challenges at their local schools and libraries, creating “copycat challenging” that drives the rapid increase in calls for censorship. The 120 titles most frequently targeted for censorship during 2024 are all identified on partisan book rating sites which provide tools for activists to demand the censorship of library books. It’s like having a cookbook for book banning, complete with step-by-step instructions and pre-made lists. These groups have turned censorship into an assembly line operation, processing dozens or hundreds of books at once with military-like precision.
“Gender Queer” and the Memoir That Broke the Internet
“Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe topped the list of most challenged books for the third year in a row, as this graphic memoir chronicles the author’s experience with sexuality and gender from childhood to adulthood. The book became the ultimate lightning rod because it dared to show what many teenagers already experience – questioning their identity and exploring their sexuality. What began as an autobiographical comic, a way for Maia to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, has turned into an intimate and touching guide for teenagers on a new way to think about gender. Critics claim it’s sexually explicit, but they’re really objecting to the existence of non-binary people in general. The book’s crime isn’t being pornographic – it’s being honest about experiences that conservative groups want to pretend don’t exist. Think of it like this: if a straight teenager’s coming-of-age story is considered normal and appropriate, why is a non-binary teenager’s story suddenly dangerous?
The Classic That Won’t Stay Banned
“To Kill a Mockingbird” has been challenged and banned because of violence and its use of the N-word, and has been challenged for the depiction of violence, offensive language, and racism. In 2017, it was removed mid-lesson from 8th grade classrooms in Biloxi, Mississippi, over complaints about language, particularly concerning a Black parent worried about her daughter and classmates’ response to the book, which reportedly included laughter over the use of the slur. The controversy reveals a deeper tension: should we sanitize history or confront it? The Burbank (CA) Unified School District superintendent removed these titles from required classroom reading lists and banned the use of the N-word in all school classes. According to the American Library Association’s director, challenges over the decades have usually cited the book’s strong language, discussion of sexuality and rape, and use of the n-word. It’s like trying to teach about the Holocaust without mentioning antisemitism – technically possible, but completely missing the point.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” and America’s Uncomfortable Mirror
“The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood has been banned and challenged for profanity and for “vulgarity and sexual overtones”. The novel is one of the most banned books in the US owing to its sexual content, “material that may discomfort students,” and its “discussion of feminism and extremism,” as it’s set in a dystopian rendering of the US where fertile women are forced to bear children for the ruling class and grapples with issues like surveillance, power and reproductive coercion. The timing of these bans is particularly telling – in the near future, Offred is a handmaid in an authoritarian society who is not permitted to read, and we’ll let that sink in. Banning a book about banning books? The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Critics claim it’s too sexually explicit, but what really bothers them is how accurately Atwood predicted certain political trends. It’s like banning weather reports because you don’t like rain – the forecast doesn’t cause the storm, it just warns you it’s coming.
“The Kite Runner” and the Fear of Muslim Stories
“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini has been challenged for offensive language, unsuited to age group, violence, and challenges included age inappropriate material, sexually explicit content, and offensive language. This critically acclaimed, multigenerational novel was challenged and banned because it includes sexual violence and was thought to “lead to terrorism” and “promote Islam”. Wait, what? A book about friendship and redemption set in Afghanistan supposedly promotes terrorism? The novel follows Amir, a young boy growing up in 1970s Kabul, grappling with themes of friendship, family, betrayal and guilt, offering an engaging insight into recent Afghan history, but has been banned owing to its depiction of violence, sexual content and offensive language. The real issue isn’t the book’s content – it’s that some people can’t handle reading about Muslims as complex human beings rather than stereotypes. It’s like refusing to eat at a restaurant because you’re afraid the food might teach you about another culture.
John Green’s “Looking for Alaska” and Teen Reality
John Green’s “Looking for Alaska” followed “Nineteen Minutes” as the second most banned book with 97 instances. This coming-of-age novel deals with themes that teenagers actually face – depression, suicide, sexuality, and the search for meaning. The novel “brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another” and is described as a “stunning debut” that marked “bestselling author John Green’s arrival as a groundbreaking new voice in contemporary fiction”. Yet somehow, acknowledging that teenagers think about sex and death is considered dangerous. The book doesn’t encourage risky behavior – it explores the consequences of it. Critics seem to believe that if we don’t talk about teenage struggles in literature, those struggles will magically disappear from real life. It’s like thinking that hiding the car keys will prevent your teenager from learning to drive – eventually, they’ll need to navigate the road, and you can either give them a map or let them figure it out through trial and error.
The Florida Effect: When States Weaponize Censorship
About 45% of the bans occurred in Florida and 36% in Iowa during the 2023-2024 school year. Florida’s HB 1069, which went into effect July 2023, created a statutory process for book banning, requiring that any book challenged for “sexual conduct” must be removed during its review process. This isn’t just policy – it’s a conveyor belt for censorship. Iowa’s SF 496 requires all materials to be “age-appropriate,” but the state’s definition prohibits materials from having any description or depiction of a “sex act” and contains “Don’t Say Gay” copycat provisions that prohibit discussions of LGBTQ+ identities in the classroom. These laws essentially give any parent the power to shut down a book by simply filing a complaint, turning school libraries into judicial battlegrounds. It’s like giving everyone a fire alarm button and then acting surprised when chaos ensues.
The Historical Pattern of American Censorship
America’s first book ban occurred in 1637 when Thomas Morton’s book about his community outside Plymouth was banned by Puritans who accused him of “dancing and frisking together” with Native Americans, giving their leaders nicknames like “Captaine Shrimp” and denouncing their genocide of the Indigenous population. The Jim Crow-era South was a particular hotbed for book censorship, with the United Daughters of the Confederacy successfully banning school textbooks that did not offer a sympathetic view of the South’s loss in the Civil War, and attempts to ban “The Rabbits’ Wedding,” a 1954 children’s book depicting a white rabbit marrying a black rabbit. The pattern is clear: every generation finds new books to fear, but the underlying anxiety remains the same – terror that literature might change how people think. Throughout history, book bans and other kinds of censorship really tell us about what people are afraid of. We’ve gone from banning books about interracial rabbit marriages to banning books about transgender teenagers, but the motivation is identical: fear of change.
The Prison System’s Hidden Censorship
Carceral censorship is the most pervasive form of literature restriction in the United States, though because the government doesn’t require federal prisons to self-report censored titles, there’s a lack of centralized data, and it’s the mailroom staff of prisons who are responsible for intercepting literature. This represents perhaps the largest censorship operation in America that nobody talks about. Content-neutral bans restrict literature for reasons unrelated to its contents – if it’s mailed from a non-approved bookseller, if it’s hardcover and all hardcover books are prohibited, or because the package has a mailing label. Imagine being locked away from society and then having your access to books – your window to the outside world – controlled by mailroom clerks who may not have read a single page of what they’re confiscating. It’s censorship by bureaucracy, where the rules matter more than the content.
The Copycat Challenge Revolution
In 2022, the majority of book challenges involved multiple titles, with 40 percent of cases calling for bans of 100 books or more, through “copycat challenging” where one group compiles a list then shares it through social media with others. Book challenging has escalated because these groups have become a lot more well-funded and a lot more organized. This isn’t your grandmother’s book club discussing questionable content over tea and cookies. Politicized groups or individuals have been at the center of large swaths of book challenges nationwide, sometimes demanding the censorship of multiple titles – often dozens or hundreds at a time, which helped drive the surge in book challenges. They’ve industrialized outrage, turning book banning into a franchise operation where local groups can plug into a national network and instantly challenge hundreds of titles without reading a single page. It’s like McDonald’s, but for censorship – standardized, efficient, and utterly soulless.
When Authors Become Targets
Schools seem to be increasingly wary of author visits, with numerous authors reporting sharp declines in their invitations and abrupt cancellations of scheduled visits to public schools, as canceled author visits are another form of soft-censorship that often target BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors. Vicki Johnson, author of “Molly’s Tuxedo,” an award-winning picture book about a gender nonconforming child, was scheduled to visit a school to provide each of 240 students a personal copy when her visit was canceled with no clear explanation, describing soft censorship as “like being ghosted”. Authors now get called “groomer” and “pedophile” instead of book reviews, with some no longer sharing where they live for safety reasons. Think about the absurdity: we’ve created an environment where children’s book authors need security protocols. These are people who spent their careers trying to help kids learn and grow, and now they’re receiving death threats for writing about acceptance and diversity. It’s like declaring war on kindergarten teachers because you don’t like their lesson plans.
What strikes me most about this whole censorship circus is how it reveals our deepest fears about the power of stories. After all, if books really were as harmless as critics claim, why would anyone bother banning them?
Besides founding Festivaltopia, Luca is the co founder of trib, an art and fashion collectiv you find on several regional events and online. Also he is part of the management board at HORiZONTE, a group travel provider in Germany.
