The literary nonprofit PEN America says that the number of nonfiction books banned in public schools doubled during the 2024-2025 school year.
In a new report, the group says that 29% of the books banned during that period—more than 1,100 unique titles—were works of nonfiction, more than twice the number banned during the 2023-2024 school year.
Of the nonfiction books banned in schools, 52% were related to social activism, including #WomensMarch: Insisting on Equality by Rebecca Felix and Intersection Allies: We Make Room for All, written by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council, and Carolyn Choi, with illustrations by Ashley Seil Smith.
Other nonfiction books targeted by censors included Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir Night; Elizabeth Baquedano’s Aztec, Inca, and Maya; and Martha Lundin’s Challenges for LGBTQ Teens. Sex education books were also frequently banned, including You Know, Sex: Bodies, Gender, Puberty and Other Things, written by Cory Silverberg and illustrated by Fiona Smyth, and The Little Black Book for Girlz: A Book on Healthy Sexuality by St. Stephen’s Community House.
Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, said in a statement, “This latest trend shows an embrace of anti-intellectualism, undermining public knowledge by devaluing education and expertise. It is another example of how censorship sweeps broadly, leading to removals of all kinds of books, in its efforts to sow fear and distrust in our public education system.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
