The 15 most banned books in U.S. schools

In the 2024-25 school year, book bans affected more than 3,700 unique titles in 87 school districts across 23 states, according to PEN America. 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.”

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.

Books with LGBTQ themes and characters — like “Gender Queer” and “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” — are consistently among the most banned books highlighted in the annual reports of PEN America.

Here are the 15 most banned books this past school year as tracked by PEN America, ranked in order of those banned by the most public school districts across the country:

‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess
‘Breathless’ by Jennifer Niven
‘Sold’ by Patricia McCormick
‘Last Night at the Telegraph Club’ by Malinda Lo
‘A Court of Mist and Fury’ by Sarah J. Maas
‘Crank’ by Ellen Hopkins
‘Forever…’ by Judy Blume
‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ by Stephen Chbosky
‘Wicked’ by Gregory Maguire
‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ by George M. Johnson
‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ by Sarah J. Maas
‘Damsel’ by Elana K. Arnold
‘The DUFF’ by Kody Keplinger
‘Nineteen Minutes’ by Jodi Picoult
‘Storm and Fury’ by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Enjoy!