The 15 most banned books in U.S. schools

"A Clockwork Orange," "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" and "Wicked" are among the most banned books of the 2024-2025 school year, according to PEN America.

The most commonly banned books in U.S. schools include LGBTQ titles, international bestsellers, teen romantasy novels and a 1962 classic, according to a new report that compares modern-day censorship to Cold War-era McCarthyism.

More than 6,800 book bans were enacted during the 2024-25 school year in 87 public school districts across 23 states, according to a report released Wednesday by PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free expression. The report was released ahead of Banned Books Week, which starts Sunday.

“Censorship pressures have expanded and escalated,” Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, said in a news release. “A disturbing ‘everyday banning’ and normalization of censorship has worsened and spread over the last four years.”

The organization’s annual “Banned in the USA” report says the current environment of “unfettered book banning is reminiscent of the Red Scare of the 1950s.” It defines a school 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 governmental officials” that leads to the book being removed or restricted.

The latest report found that 3,752 unique titles were affected by bans in the school year that ended in June. The most banned titles included “A Clockwork Orange” and “Wicked,” while the most banned authors included Stephen King, Sarah J. Maas and Jodi Picoult. More than 80% of all bans originated in just three states: Florida, Texas and Tennessee.