Number of nonfiction books banned in schools has doubled, report says

• PEN America published a report on May 7 that said more than 3,500 unique titles were removed from school classrooms and libraries in the 2024-2025 school year. Nearly 30% were nonfiction books.
• The organization attributed the increasing censorship of nonfiction books to a widespread "embrace of anti-intellectualism" reflected in "skepticism, disdain and devaluing of experts and expertise."
• It also connected book bans at schools to larger political movements, such as those centered on LGBTQ rights.

Nonfiction books were censored at schools at more than double the past rate in the 2024-2025 school year, according to a new report by PEN America.  

The organization, whose stated mission is to “celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible,” began monitoring book bans in 2021.

The May 7 report, “Facts & Fiction: Stories Stripped Away By Book Bans,” found that 3,743 unique titles were removed from school classrooms and libraries from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025. There were 6,780 total bans across 23 states during that period, according to the organization.  

More than 1,000 of the titles – 29% – were nonfiction works, which the organization said was more than double the number from the previous year.  

The organization defines the term "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 book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.”   

PEN America attributed rising censorship of nonfiction books to what it described as a widespread “embrace of anti-intellectualism,” saying the data “mirrors the broader political attack on facts and knowledge and a skepticism, disdain, and devaluing of experts and expertise – tactics long associated with the rise of authoritarian regimes to sow distrust in democratic institutions.” 

Certain books, such as Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” and works by other authors including Ellen Hopkins and Laurie Halse Anderson, have long been “scarlet-letter branded,” Kasey Meehan, director of the organization’s Freedom to Read program, told USA TODAY.  

But it was “interesting” to see the increasing number of nonfiction books, including memoirs as well as educational and informational books, affected by book bans, she said. Among the titles were “Night” by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and “Aztec, Inca & Maya” by Elizabeth Baquedano.  

The report said that “books on ancient Egypt, the digestive system or self-help books for teens” are “not always the targets of efforts to remove books” but are nevertheless swept up in efforts to restrict what literature children can access.  

“Censorship is slippery, and the big boulder of censorship continues to roll its way down the hill, taking all kinds of books with it,” Meehan said.  

The findings 

Among the report’s other findings:  

• “Book bans continue to overwhelmingly impact books that include characters or people of color and LGBTQ+ characters or people. Of note, 44% of banned titles feature characters or people of color, representing nearly half of all banned titles and the largest percentage ever reported in this category by our research.” 

• “Alongside the increase in nonfiction titles is a cascading increase in several genres impacted by book bans during the 2024-2025 school year. Similar to 2023-2024, realistic/contemporary and dystopia/sci-fi/fantasy remain the dominant genres banned in the 2024-2025 school year. But of note, educational titles grew from 5% of all titles in 2023-2024 to 13% of total titles banned in 2024-2025 or nearly 500 unique titles.” 

• “Over 2,000 titles or 57% of all banned books featured themes of non-sexual violence. Books in this category address war, gun violence, natural disasters, domestic violence, human trafficking, slavery and genocide, physical fighting, and more. 48% of titles cover themes of grief and death, the second most common theme across all books.” 

• “Of the 1,102 nonfiction titles banned, 52% were titles with themes of activism and social movements; the most commonly banned topic within nonfiction titles.” 

Book bans echo larger political climate, PEN America says

Meehan said book bans are a “bellwether of broader political movements,” such as those centered on rolling back protections for LGBTQ Americans. To that end, she said PEN America is monitoring two U.S. House bills that could “thrust all public schools into the book-banning crisis.”  

H.R. 7661, the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act,” which U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Illinois, introduced in February, aims in part to bar federal funds from being used for “sexually oriented material” provided or promoted to minors. Miller said the legislation “draws a clear and enforceable line to ensure our schools remain focused on education, not explicit ideological agendas or radical indoctrination.”  

The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce voted in March to send the bill to the full chamber.  

H.R. 2616 , the “PROTECT Kids Act,” introduced by U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, seeks in part to require public elementary and middle schools to obtain parental consent before changing a student’s pronouns or preferred name on school forms, or providing any sex-based accommodations for restrooms or locker rooms. It has not yet reached a floor vote.

The bills "mirror language that we have seen at the state level that has ultimately led to book bans," Meehan said.

President Donald Trump’s Department of Education dismissed nearly a dozen complaints about alleged book bans days after he returned to office in January 2025, saying in a news release that it was ending “(former President Joe) Biden’s Book Ban Hoax.” The department said the issue should be a local matter and that curation decisions “will no longer be second-guessed by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education.”  

Challenges to book bans around the country  

The U.S. Supreme Court in December declined to hear an appeal by a group of Texas residents challenging a local decision to remove more than a dozen books from public libraries, allowing the disputed books to remain off shelves.  The appeals court had previously ruled that the county was simply exercising its right to make its own curation decisions.  

“That is what it means to be a library – to make judgments about which books are worth reading and which are not, which ideas belong on the shelves and which do not,” the appeals court said. “If you doubt that, next time you visit the library, ask the librarian to direct you to the Holocaust Denial Section.”  

In April 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Trump administration on behalf of a group of military families over the alleged ban on hundreds of books at schools operated by the Department of Defense. A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in October, ordering the administration to return the books to the shelves while litigation continues. 

The ACLU told USA TODAY on May 6 that the administration had done so and that it was litigating in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to expand the scope of the order, which only applied to the five schools at the center of the lawsuit.  

BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected]. 

USA TODAY's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.