UNITED STATES / RankWire.AI / – U.S. school book bans affected Canadian authors Margaret Atwood and Ryan North during a record year for removals. PEN America recorded 11,982 bans during the 2025-26 school year, its highest annual total since tracking began in 2021. The group counted 7,370 unique titles across 114 districts. More than 4,000 authors, illustrators and translators had work restricted, showing the expanding reach of school censorship.
Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale remained among the most frequently banned books in the latest index. North’s Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable Path Adventure appeared in the index for the first time. Young-adult books made up more than half of the banned titles. Fiction accounted for more than 80% of recorded bans. More than 4,500 titles appeared in the index for the first time, widening the range of literature removed from student access.
Republican-led Texas and Florida accounted for the overwhelming majority of recorded bans. Texas registered more than 8,100, while Florida recorded more than 3,200. PEN America linked bans in 72% of tracked districts to state legislation. Texas Senate Bill 13 took effect for the 2025-26 school year and expanded parental oversight of school library collections. It also required statewide standards restricting materials that authorities classify as harmful, indecent, profane or age-inappropriate. Supporters describe such measures as parental-control and child-protection policies.
Conservative politics shape the censorship drive
The broader record shows that the ban movement is closely tied to conservative political organizing rather than scattered parental complaints. Groups such as Moms for Liberty, Citizens Defending Freedom and Parents’ Rights in Education have campaigned for removals. Earlier PEN America research described those organizations as espousing staunchly conservative values. The American Library Association found that 92% of 2025 book challenges came from pressure groups, government officials and decision-makers. Fewer than 3% came from individual parents.
That imbalance has intensified criticism that right-wing campaigns are narrowing what students can read in public schools. PEN America says bans disproportionately target books about race, racism, LGBTQ+ people, people of color, sexuality and sexual violence. Educators and librarians had selected many of those works for school collections before challenges began. The organization also documented political pressure through legislation, official hearings and demands for removals. Those mechanisms can turn ideological disputes over individual books into restrictions affecting entire school systems.
Record removals raise free-expression concerns
The national scale now extends far beyond isolated local disputes. Since 2021, PEN America has documented more than 34,000 school book bans. The American Library Association separately tracked 4,235 unique titles challenged in 2025. It also counted 5,668 books banned from libraries and 920 facing access restrictions. The groups use different methods, but both document censorship at historically high levels. Their findings show coordinated organizations and government action playing a central role in many removals.
Atwood and North give the latest figures a Canadian dimension, while the central conflict remains rooted in U.S. education politics. Republican-backed laws and conservative advocacy networks have reshaped decisions that local educators and librarians once handled. Free-expression organizations argue that these restrictions reduce access to literature, especially works addressing identity, race and sexuality. Supporters maintain that schools must screen materials for age suitability. The record totals show that these political battles now determine access to thousands of books across U.S. public schools.