Stephen King is the most banned author in US schools
15 hours ago
- #book-bans
- #education
- #censorship
- Stephen King is the most banned author in U.S. schools, with 206 instances of his books being censored.
- PEN America's report 'Banned in the USA' tracks over 6,800 book bans for the 2024-2025 school year, down from over 10,000 the previous year.
- 80% of book bans originate from Florida, Texas, and Tennessee, states with laws targeting objectionable content.
- Illinois, Maryland, and New Jersey have laws limiting book bans, resulting in few or no removals.
- The most banned single work is Anthony Burgess's 'A Clockwork Orange,' with 23 removals.
- Common reasons for bans include LGBTQ+ themes, depictions of race, and scenes of violence or sexual violence.
- Many books are preemptively removed due to fear of controversy rather than direct complaints.
- The Department of Education has dismissed book bans as a 'hoax,' while the Department of Defense removed hundreds of books from military family schools.
- PEN's data is incomplete due to lack of documentation in some states and the difficulty of tracking statewide impacts.
- Book bans are increasingly hard to quantify, with many removals not publicly reported.