PEN America has released a new report rounding up the top 52 most frequently banned books so far this decade. Compiling data from PEN's index of school book bans from 2021–2025, the list shows that districts across the country have repeatedly targeted specific titles, many of which relate to race and racism, reflect LGBTQ+ identities, or concern sexual abuse and violence.
These themes don't obviously apply, however, to the the leader of the pack: John Green’s YA novel Looking for Alaska (Dutton, 2005), which tops the list with 147 instances of banning. It's followed closely by Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes (Atria, 2007), a novel about the unfolding of a school shooting that has amassed 142 bans. Patricia McCormick's Sold (Hyperion, 2006), about a Nepalese girl who is a victim of sex trafficking, rounds out the top three with 136 bans.
Further down the list are titles familiar to many freedom to read advocates, including Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Beloved, with 116 and 77 bans, respectively, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, with 106 bans. In addition to Morrison, both contemporary and classic books related to race and racism appear frequently, including Angie Thomas graphic novel The Hate U Give (Balzer + Bray, 2017), Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, and Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Several books related to transgender identities also landed in the top half of the list, including George M. Johnson's YA memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue (FSG, 2020) with 100 bans and Maia Kobabe's graphic memoir Gender Queer (Lion Forge, 2019), with 94 bans.
But bestselling authors whose work is not explicitly ideological, like Green, romantasy juggernaut Sarah J. Maas, and YA author Ellen Hopkins, also appear on the list numerous times. PEN's report pointed out the mainstream nature of many books on the list, which includes seven titles by Maas, as a cause for particular concern: "If groups pushing censorship consider widely read classics indecent, if they can come for the likes of John Green and Toni Morrison, is anything off limits?"
The new report comes on the heels of a discouraging week for freedom to read advocates after the U.S. Supreme Court denied requests to hear Leila Green Little et al. v. Llano County, a closely-watched Texas book removal case.
PEN America has documented 22,810 cases of book bans in U.S. public schools since it began collecting data in 2021. Bans have occurred in 45 states and 451 public school districts. PEN's Freedom to Read Director Kasey Meehan said that the top 52 list "emphasizes the point that this [book banning] is a coordinated effort."
"Districts are copycatting each other," she added. "We see the same titles again and again and again."
