School book bans hit record high with nearly 12,000 removals, study finds

School book bans have hit a record high at almost 12,000 removals, according to a new report from PEN America, a free-speech organization.

The group found 11,982 books banned in the 2025-26 school year, a big jump from the 6,870 the previous year.

Among those almost 12,000 books were 7,370 unique titles taken out of classrooms, removing the work of 4,000 authors. The most-banned categories were the young adult section and the fiction section.

The vast majority of bans came from Texas and Florida, where PEN America says political pressure has been greatest.

While those states have been targeting certain books for years, the use of AI in book removals has apparently risen significantly.

PEN America found district administrators are using AI to evaluate books and see if they need to be removed. The group found instances where AI only recommended a book removal because another district took a book away and not because of obscene material.

Another trend for removals this year included manga, a Japanese form of graphic novel that has been targeted in classrooms.

Several new titles appeared on the banned books list this year, including “Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World” by Kelly Jensen, “Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure” by Ryan North and “Be More Chill” by Ned Vizzini.

Among the most commonly banned books are repeats from previous years such as “Sold” by Patricia McCormick and “Looking for Alaska” by John Green.

Many authors, such as Stephen King and Ellen Hopkins, are beginning to see their whole catalogs banned instead of just specific books.

“As presented in our last report, our analysis of thousands of books banned over the past five years consistently highlights that efforts to purge stories and books from schools have overwhelmingly targeted books about race and racism, LGBTQ+ people or characters, people or characters of color, and sex,” the report read.