From Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale: Why America keeps banning acclaimed books

A notable pattern that emerged across the rankings was that once a book is challenged, it is often removed repeatedly across districts. Popularity appears to increase scrutiny rather than shield a title. Authors such as Sarah J Maas and Ellen Hopkins each have seven books among the top 52 most banned titles, suggesting that censorship efforts frequently target entire bodies of work.

PEN America notes that visibility, especially through bestseller lists, classroom adoption, or social media popularity, can make books more vulnerable to coordinated challenges.

Book Bans: Most of the banned books carry stories that often provide language and context for experiences many students already encounter. (Generated using AI)

What the bans are actually about

Censorship advocates often frame book bans as an effort to protect students from sexually explicit material. However, PEN America’s analysis shows that many of the most frequently banned books contain little or no sexual content. Instead, the majority engage with themes that are socially and politically contested.

Books examining race and systemic racism are heavily represented. Titles such as The Bluest Eye and Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas confront histories of violence, inequality, and marginalisation.

Similarly, books reflecting LGBTQ+ identities, particularly those of transgender and nonbinary people, are disproportionately targeted. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M Johnson, and Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin appear repeatedly in ban counts. PEN America reports that books with transgender characters or authors face some of the highest rates of removal, even when written for young adult audiences.

Another large category includes books addressing sexual violence, abuse, addiction, and mental health, such as Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Crank by Ellen Hopkins, and Lucky by Alice Sebold. These stories often provide language and context for experiences many students already encounter.

When classics become contraband

Most bans involve books long considered foundational to American literature. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, banned more than 100 times, ironically imagines a society in which women are forbidden to read. Judy Blume’s Forever…, first published in 1975, continues to be challenged decades later for its frank depiction of teenage relationships. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a cornerstone of American memoir, remains a frequent target despite its canonical status.

Many of these books are celebrated outside school walls, taught at universities across continents, adapted into films and television series, and cited as essential reading. Their removal from schools suggests a narrowing definition of what young people are permitted to encounter intellectually and emotionally.

PEN America warns that the cumulative effect of these bans is not simply fewer books on shelves, but a constrained educational environment. When award winners and literary classics are deemed inappropriate, the boundary of acceptable reading contracts rapidly.

The complete rankings of the most banned books and authors from 2021 to 2025, along with district- and state-level data, are published in PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans. Together, the findings show that the books most likely to be removed are often those that ask the most important questions.