What state banned the most books last year?
Critical Analysis
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:
PEN America 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 lawmakers or other governmental officials, that leads to a previously accessible book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished. It is important to recognize that books available in schools, whether in a school or classroom library, or as part of a curriculum, were selected by librarians and educators as part of the educational offerings to students. Book bans occur when those choices are overridden by school boards, administrators, teachers, or even politicians, on the basis of a particular book’s content. According to the data from the map above, in the 2023-2024 school year, what state had the most book bans?
According to the data from the map above, in the 2023-2024 school year, about how many book bans did Iowa have?
According to the data from the map above, identify any region that had the most book bans.
According to PEN America’s latest report book bans are speeding up. PEN America recorded 10,046 instances of book bans in the 2023-2024 school year, almost triple the number from the year before. PEN America has documented nearly 16,000 book bans in public schools nationwide since 2021, a number not seen since the Red Scare McCarthy era of the 1950s. Why do you think the number of book bans is increasing?
According to the data from the map above, in the 2023-2024 school year how many books were banned in your state?
Overwhelmingly, book banners continue to target stories by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. Of the most commonly banned books in the 2023-2024 school year, 44% featured people and characters of color and 39% featured LGBTQ+ people and characters. Make a claim about why almost half of schools book bans are about people of color.
Various groups have banned or attempted to ban books since the invention of the printing press. Censored or challenged works include the Bible, The American Heritage Dictionary, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, To Kill A Mockingbird, and the works of children’s authors J. K. Rowling and Judy Blume. The First Amendment has made a claim about censorship: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Make a claim about whether book bans by public schools amount to an abridgement of Freedom of Speech.
The process behind book challenges and bans has also been supercharged by a new source of pressure: state legislation. School districts in many states are reacting to new laws that dictate the types of books that can even be in schools, or what kinds of policies they have to follow to add new books and review their collections. How does this relate to the concept of federalism?
The movement to ban books is driven by a vocal minority demanding censorship. At the same time, a 2022 poll found that over 70% of parents oppose book banning. Yet the bans continue. Many public school districts find themselves in a bind. They face threats and political pressure, along with parental fears and anxieties surrounding the books on their school shelves. School Boards, administrators, teachers, and librarians are told in some cases to “err on the side of caution” in the books they make available. Too often, they do just that. How does this scenario illustrate the threat of factions Madison warned about in Federalist No. 10.
The most banned books in the 2023-2024 school year, according to the PEN America Index of School Book Bans, include bestselling novelist Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes, about the moments leading up to a school shooting, and John Green’s Looking for Alaska. The list also includes The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, and The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. How many of the books from the following list of the top ten banned books from this year have you read?
1. Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult, 98 bans
“Jodi Picoult, bestselling author of My Sister’s Keeper and Small Great Things pens her most riveting book yet, with a startling and poignant story about the devastating aftermath of a small-town tragedy.“
Award-winning author
2. Looking for Alaska, by John Green, 97 bans
“Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A modern classic, this stunning debut marked bestselling author John Green’s arrival as a groundbreaking new voice in contemporary fiction.”
Michael L. Printz Award winner
New York Timesbestseller
NPR’s Top Ten Best-Ever Teen Novels
TIME magazine’s 100 Best Young Adult Novels of All Time
TV miniseries
3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, 85 bans
“Read the cult-favorite coming-of-age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory.”
New York Times bestseller
American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and Best Book for Reluctant Readers
Major motion picture
4. Sold, by Patricia McCormick, 85 bans
“The powerful, poignant, bestselling National Book Award Finalist gives voice to a young girl robbed of her childhood yet determined to find the strength to triumph.”
National Book Award finalist
5 (tie). Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, 76 bans
“You can’t stop the future.
You can’t rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.”New York Times bestseller
Netflix movie
5 (tie). Crank (Crank Series), by Ellen Hopkins, 76 bans
“Kristina Snow is the perfect daughter: gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble. Then, Kristina meets the monster: crank. And what begins as a wild, ecstatic ride turns into a struggle through hell for her mind, her soul–her life.”
No. 1 New York Times bestseller
7. Identical, by Ellen Hopkins, 74 bans
“Beneath their perfect family façade, twin sisters struggle alone with impossible circumstances and their own demons until they finally learn to fight for each other.”
New York Times bestselling author
8. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, 73 bans
“The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, caught in the tragic sweep of history.”
No. 1 New York Times bestselling novel
New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
9. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, 67 bans
In the near future, Offred is a handmaid in an authoritarian society who is not permitted to read. We’ll let that sink in.
Modern classic
Award-winning author
10 (tie). Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen, 66 bans
With more than 10,000 copies in print, this bestselling novel was the basis of a movie and a Broadway show.
No. 1 New York Times Bestseller
10 (tie). Tricks, by Ellen Hopkins, 66 bans
“Five troubled teenagers fall into prostitution as they search for freedom, safety, community, family, and love in this No. 1 New York Times bestselling novel from Ellen Hopkins.”
New York Times bestseller
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
Students have been at the forefront of the fight for the freedom to read, even as they feel the immediate and harmful impacts of the book banning movement. In the fall of 2023, approximately 650 students students staged a walkout in Alaska’s Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough School District to protest the school board’s decisions to remove the student representative from the board and to investigate challenges to 56 books. As part of the review, the board recommended several books be removed or restricted, including Robie H. Harris’s It’s Perfectly Normal and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. The students’ walkout lasted 56 minutes: one minute per book challenged. In Laramie County, Wyoming, students staged a “read-in” at an October meeting where the school board was contemplating an opt-in policy for checking out certain books at the library. The silent protesters read books like Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas—titles that have been challenged and deemed obscene across the country. “It’s a way of telling them the majority doesn’t actually agree with restrictive book banning,” one student explained to Cowboy State Daily. “It’s the job of the board to provide a quality education.” And in New Haven, Connecticut, over 100 high school students marched to protect the freedom to read. Students spoke openly about how books about race, gender, and sexuality helped them understand their history, their peers, and themselves. Students have routinely pushed back against the idea that book bans protect them from complicated topics. “Trying to hide the kind of unpleasant truth from us, that doesn’t do any good,” said one student in Miami, Florida. “In fact, that’s harmful.” Think about what students can do who are opposed to book bans, then after consulting your parents and teacher contact your school board and let them know what you think about book bans.
Get Creative
Write the title of a book about banning books.
Learning Extension
Read the PEN America Report: Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis.
