PEN America report shows banned non-fiction books doubled over last school year in US
Source: The Guardian
Report shows banned non-fiction books doubled over last school year in US
New PEN America report analysed 3,743 unique titles removed from libraries and classrooms and found books about activism and social movements were targeted
Benjamin Lee
Thu 7 May 2026 13.30 BST
Last modified on Thu 7 May 2026 14.59 BST
A new report has found that the number of banned non-fiction books doubled during the 2024-2025 school year in the US.
PEN America analysed the 3,743 unique titles removed from school libraries and classrooms in the July to June period and found that over 1,100 or 29% were non-fiction, more than double the year prior.
The most common theme in the banned non-fiction books was activism and social movements. “These titles help students learn about their rights and the stories of those who confronted injustice and participated in social movements to change the world around them,” said McKenna Samson, a co-author of the report.
Banned non-fiction titles included Challenges for LGBTQ+ Teens by Martha Lundin, Aztec, Inca, and Maya by Elizabeth Baquedano and Night by Elie Wiesel, a Nazi death camp memoir.
“This latest trend shows an embrace of anti-intellectualism, ...
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/07/banned-non-fiction-books-doubles
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