Banned Books Week, Oct 4, 10; US school bans reach record 12,000

PEN America reports almost 12,000 book bans in U.S. public schools during the 2025-2026 school year, the highest annual total since the group began tracking bans in 2021. Texas accounted for more than 8,100 of those bans, a surge PEN America attributes to the state law SB13 and to school systems using artificial intelligence tools that remove large numbers of titles. The bans covered a record number of unique titles, exceeding 7,000, and affected more than 4,000 authors, illustrators and translators; analysts identified 114 school districts that banned books during the year. The most frequently banned title was Sold by Patricia McCormick and Stephen King was the most banned author for the second consecutive year. PEN quoted McCormick criticizing descriptions of her book as pornographic and said the bans disproportionately hit fiction, with fiction comprising more than 90 percent of young adult titles challenged. As Banned Books Week events continue, including a planned conversation in Buffalo with author and social justice strategist Rashad Robinson, PEN highlighted local pushback such as progressive school board candidates winning in parts of Florida as one concrete response to the wave of bans.