Book Censorship News, May 15, 2026
Books

Book Censorship News, May 15, 2026


This spring marks five years of escalating attacks on books and libraries in America. Throughout 2026, organizations across the spectrum will be marking this anniversary, both to emphasize how long and complex this battle has been and to champion and celebrate the work being done to protect equitable access to books and libraries.

Let’s begin, though, with what we can count and track most easily: banned books from between 2021 and 2026.

There are currently four authoritative lists of banned book titles. These are books we know have been banned based on reported and/or published data, as well as because they’re on a state-sponsored list of banned titles. Most of the books banned in America go undocumented, so what we know from these lists represents but a fraction of how widespread the practice of literary censorship is. PEN America reports that since the 2021 school year, about 23,000 books have been banned based on documentation. Reality is that this number is multiples higher, knowing what we do about quiet censorship, the deceleration of book purchases at libraries, and the chilling effect.

Official Lists of Documented Book Bans

During National Library Week every year, the American Library Association (ALA) releases its Top Ten Most Challenged Titles list. ALA has tracked challenged books–that is, titles which have had a complaint lodged against them, whether or not they’re ultimately banned–since 1981. The professional organization has released Top Ten lists since 2001. These challenges are those reported nationwide in libraries, so they capture a broad range of titles and institutions.

Since the 2021-2022 school year, PEN America has documented book bans in public schools nationwide. This is newer work for them, and, like the ALA, they document based on reports submitted to them and those in news reports. Also, like the ALA, they’ve teased out the top-banned titles each year, hoping to both highlight the current targets and explore the themes within them. PEN’s reports have also been a fascinating and frustrating exercise in explaining that the titles at the top of the list change each year because once books are banned in the schools, they are no longer in the schools. ALA’s lists are often more consistent in terms of titles because they track more libraries; they also reflect what PEN’s lists do, showcasing that what happens in the schools does not stop there.

The meteoric rise of book bans in America began in spring 2021. It was the natural next step in right-wing rhetoric about “reopening the schools” after COVID (schools were never closed but were virtual), followed by “unmask the kids” and “don’t vax the kids.” As has been said since the beginning, this attack on books has never been about the books. It’s been an attack on inclusivity or, in their parlance, “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). It’s been an attack on “comprehensive sexuality education,” now more commonly referred to as “gender ideology” or “sexual orientation and gender ideology” (SOGI). It’s been an attack on any science-based facts that don’t align with white Christian nationalism, such as social-emotional learning, climate change, and so forth. It’s never been about the books, but about both the ideas within those books and the people they represent.

The ALA and PEN aren’t the only places keeping verified and as comprehensive as possible lists of banned books. So, too, are two U.S. states. While three states in the country have legislative mechanisms to demand the removal of books from all public schools, only two have exercised them so far: Utah and South Carolina. Utah, as of writing, has banned 34 books from all public schools in the state thanks to its 2024 law; South Carolina, as of writing, has banned 22 books thanks to its 2024 law. The third state that has the ability to do this is Tennessee, and while there have been numerous book bans in the state, none have yet been decreed officially by the state. Meanwhile, Florida doesn’t have the mechanisms to maintain an official list of banned books, but the State Board of Education has a list of specific books they’ve demanded that schools remove. The books on all of these lists–sanctioned or not–are, of course, folded into the counts by both ALA and PEN.

But as we roll into our fifth year of ongoing book censorship, what do we actually know about the books being targeted? Pulling from both ALA and PEN’s Top Ten Lists, as well as the titles on the official state banned lists from Utah and South Carolina between 2021 and 2026, here’s some insight of note. Florida’s unofficial list is not included here because it is not official state documentation; however, the books that have been banned as a result of the unofficial list are incorporated in both ALA and PEN’s data. Note that ALA’s data covers five full years, while PEN’s accounts cover four full school years. Their fifth year of data, covering the 2025-2026 school year, will be released in the fall.

A total of 11 lists were evaluated: five from ALA, four from PEN, one from Utah, and one from South Carolina. The word “banned” is used to describe all of these books, as ultimately, the books being tracked as “challenged” by the ALA are most frequently challenged as a means of having them banned (be it by relocation, restriction, redaction, or outright removal–the things that PEN tracks and that the state lists demand).

The Most Banned Books and Most Banned Authors, 2021-2026

Let’s begin with the most banned books over the last five years. Here are the top targeted titles, and in parentheses, you’ll see the number of times that specific book has been on the Top Ten list and/or the state-sanctioned lists.

  • #1: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (8)
  • #2 (tie): All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson (7)
  • #2 (tie): The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (7)
  • #2 (tie): Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe (7)
  • #2 (tie): Tricks by Ellen Hopkins (7)
  • #3 (tie): Crank by Ellen Hopkins (6)
  • #3 (tie): Sold by Patrick McCormick (6)
  • #4 (tie): A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (5)
  • #4 (tie): Flamer by Mike Curato (5)
  • #4 (tie): Looking for Alaska by John Green (5)
  • #4 (tie): Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (5)
  • #5 (tie): A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (4)
  • #5 (tie): This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson

Because numerous authors show up repeatedly on these lists for different books, it’s also worth looking at the most banned authors over the last five years. Here are the authors who’ve been most frequently targeted and the number of times they’ve appeared on the Top Ten list and/or state-sanctioned lists.

  • #1: Ellen Hopkins (20)
  • #2: Sarah J. Maas (18)
  • #3: Stephen Chbosky (8)
  • #4 (tie): Toni Morrison (7)
  • #4 (tie): Maia Kobabe (7)
  • #4 (tie): George M. Johnson (7)
  • #5 (tie): Patricia McCormick (6)
  • #5 (tie): Jesse Andrews (6)

Ellen Hopkins tops the list for several reasons. The first is that her work has long been a favorite of the censors, but in this current wave, the reality is that she’s simply got more titles that can be challenged than many of the others on this list. For decades, Hopkins has been fierce and outspoken about defending the right to read (and the reasons why she writes books that explore topics that are tough for young readers–it reflects reality!). It’s noteworthy that Maas, who has been one of the most banned authors for five years, has said virtually nothing about the censorship of her work.

Of the eight authors most banned since 2021, six identify as marginalized genders.

More Data About Banned Books From 2021-2026

One piece of data about banned books that always surprises people is that the vast majority of the books being banned are not new books. In many cases, these are not new books by a long shot. There are several reasons for this.

First, in public schools, it can take a long time for books to even reach the library. School libraries don’t acquire new books year-round, and their budgets can swing year to year. Because school libraries serve their school community, acquisitions sometimes don’t happen in the same way they do in public libraries. There may be assignments or projects that require the library to purchase books that aren’t necessarily brand new, just as they likely need to replace battered, damaged, or missing copies of those older titles more frequently than their public library counterparts.

Second: book banners don’t actually know how the ecosystem of book acquisition in libraries works. Books don’t just appear on shelves. They go through numerous layers of gatekeeping before professional trade journals even review them and considered for purchase by librarians. The unprofessional review sites developed by those actively engaged in book censorship use volunteers who pick up whatever they can get their hands on.

So how old are these books?

The average publication date of the most banned books in America is 2008.

That means the average publication date of the books banned over the last five years is 18 years old. Many of the books being banned right now were likely sitting perfectly fine on shelves and being read by school-age readers when the current mob of banners were themselves teenagers. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the most banned book over the last five years, was published in 1999.

Because the average is, of course, skewed by the books on either extreme of the spectrum, let’s also take a look at the median publication date.

The median publication date of the most banned books in America is 2012.

That’s still 15 years ago.

For the sake of data completionism, here are a few more numbers related to the age and publication dates of the most banned books in America over the last five years:

  • The most common publication date is 2020. That’s thanks to numerous bans on All Boys Aren’t Blue and Flamer, not because of a unique number of titles banned that year.
  • The next most common publication dates are 2019, then 2015. Next is a tie between 2018 and 2007.
  • What is the earliest publication date among the most banned books over the last five years? It’s 1962’s A Clockwork Orange. Other books on this list with publication dates in the last century include The Bluest Eye (1970), Forever … (1975), The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Wicked (1995), Push (1996), A Clash of Kings (1998), Bag of Bones (1998), Lucky (1999), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999).
  • The most recent publication date for the most frequently banned books is 2021. Those books are Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Let’s Talk About It, and A Court of Silver Flames. Again: these aren’t new books! They’re already five years old. That’s not indicative of value or worthiness, but rather a reminder that this work is not forward-looking. What’s forward-looking–and dangerous–is how many of the libraries banning these books under pressure have also adapted new policies that do not allow them to acquire new books (by choice or by force) and/or have created a chilling effect that causes librarians not to purchase anything that “might” cause partisan sycophants to get mad.

Use this information as you continue to advocate for inclusive and diverse library collections, whether that’s in your local public library or your school library (or both!). The data is illuminating because it points to where and how this panic is manufactured. These aren’t new books, and the themes and topics of these books make it quite clear that marginalized identities are the focus of the bigotry. Why is it that in 2026, a book published in 1999 tops the list of most targeted titles? Why is it that a book published in 1962 is causing a stir?

The answer is because it’s all made up. Those books weren’t doing damage back when the banners were in school, and those books–as well as the newer books that explore complex and important topics–handle themes, characters, voices, and stories with more care, nuance, sensitivity, and safety than young readers exposed to them just about anywhere else.

It’s a reminder that the “parental rights” movement seeks to have the government do the full-throated parenting so that parents don’t have to explain to their children why they don’t like people of color and/or gay people, and why they don’t believe in climate change or empathy. It’s so those parents don’t have to explain to their children why we continue to protect a ring of child sexual abusers in our political system and why it is that teen pregnancy going down is a bad thing.

Our young people deserve better.

Book Censorship News: May 15, 2026

This is the formal call for you to share your stories of Pride censorship in libraries in 2026. The reports can be of pre-Pride cancelations or quiet censorship, as much as they can be about louder cancelations throughout the month. Your responses can be entirely anonymous, and you’re welcome to share this form to make a report. It will be shared through the end of June.



Original Source

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