Banned Books Week, Oct 4, 10; US school bans reach record 12,000

booksOct 5, 20261032,180

PEN America reports almost 12,000 book bans in U.S. public schools during the 2025-2026 school year, the highest annual total since the group began tracking removals in 2021. Texas accounted for more than 8,100 of those bans, a surge PEN America links to the state law SB13; Florida had led in prior years. The bans covered a record number of unique titles, exceeding 7,000, and involved more than 4,000 authors, illustrators and translators. PEN counted 114 school districts that banned books in the year, the most ever for a single year. The most frequently banned title was Sold by Patricia McCormick, and Stephen King was the most banned author for the second year running. PEN America said new state-level censorship laws and the use of artificial intelligence tools that remove expansive sets of titles helped drive the increase; PEN’s Kasey Meehan warned that bans are removing popular fiction and young adult books that connect kids with reading.

Anna Holmes

@annabookwriter.bsky.social

BEGGING people to look up terms before using them for library social media. “BBW” doesn’t mean Banned Books Week

8514d ago

Anna Holmes202

Look, I get it. I’m a naive little librarian myself. When I was 17, I wrote a trilogy of portal fantasies where the bad guys hid in the Nether Region. Absolutely zero clue. My unpublished angsty teenaged books aren’t being transmitted to patrons, though

Innsmouth Looksmaxxing51

Rolling up to the library like

Briar Darby Sinéad Madarch (fae/it/he)30

okay, but: great promotion ideal for the plus size book-reading models out there

Cerrabus28

Every commercial social media post should have to be OKed by at least one 14 year old.

Cautionary Tale in Motion : 👍 🏳️‍🌈 ✡️ 🇨🇦23

The day I spent almost an hour explaining to an extremely normal acquaintance why he shouldn’t name his band “Stormfront”

Marc Hudson22

Wait till you see what the state-run TV and radio stations are called in the UK...

OneBlueIris, Tapatío Temptress

@oneblueiris.bsky.social

Read banned books … 📚🤓 ( idea credit: @cathymcfe2005.bsky.social )

2934d ago

Kat 🦋🐉6

👉🏼👈🏼 what if we curled up with something tasty and took turns reading to each other?

Shayla ($0/$600)5

It's getting hot in here, almost feels as hot as 451℉ 🥵

Wally with the resistance4

Best thing I’ve seen all day way to win the internet or break it

profmark69453

Oops, probably shouldn't be opening Blue Sky in the public library. (Though the message is good!)

Jade Moon ❌👑3

Good book! Hot photo. Hope it doesn't burn you.

WelCorp3

Absolutely. There's bound to be treasure inside each cover.

melissa capriglione @ HOODIE KICKSTARTER

@mcapriglioneart.bsky.social

Happy #bannedbooksweek I want to share with you a banned book that I made called Basil and Oregano. Why is it banned? Because two girls kiss, that's it.🙄 Book is available thru amazon, barnes and noble, and your local book store 💖 So every day this week, I'll be sharing pages from it 💖

1024d ago

Quoting this

Ten | "Hold On, Let Me Save"10

I bought this book from Melissa at Rose City Comic Con last year and I can indeed confirm it's a great book! I should re-read it again because it made me feel all warm and fuzzy and even writing this right now, I feel goosebumps on my arms. Go support a wonderful person & check out this book!

Rateus_Johanson3

Things I love about Mel's stories: The gorgeous artwork. The varied, engaging characters. The beautiful backgrounds. Plot drama balanced by humour. Phenomenal lighting. Pacing. Exquisite character design. Intriguing world building. So basically everything I think.

The Haunted Bookshop

@thehauntedbookshop.com

It's Banned Books Week. One of our favorite activities is to go through the list of frequently-banned books to see what our totalitarian gerontocracy doesn't want us to read. Another is to try to figure out which right-wing group was mad at each book and why. libro.fm/collections/...

664d ago

Quoting this

Kakistocracy of TERROR! 💀3

Note to self: send this thread to the Banned Books class.

QueerAF

@wearequeeraf.com

📚 One of the Nazis’ first major book burnings targeted the world’s first Trans+ clinic, where more than 20,000 books and pieces of research into Trans+ lives were erased. For #BannedBooksWeek, from our archive with @smartypantsmarty.com 👇

384d ago

Erin Tierney | Veil’s Edge Games

@veilsedgegames.bsky.social

My problem with a lot of the way Banned Books activism manifests (especially commercially) is that the biggest targets in the modern landscape are gonna be some trans author and/or author of color you've never heard of, and not Harper Lee

354d ago

Katherine Applegate

@kaaauthor.bsky.social

It's #BannedBooksWeek, an excellent time to raise your voice, stand up against censorship, and celebrate the freedom to read. Lots of great stuff planned. Be sure to take at least one action on Let Freedom Read Day this Friday! bannedbooksweek.org/let-freedom-... @bannedbooksweek.bsky.social

274d ago

Jesse Thorn

@jessethorn.bsky.social

It’s Banned Books Week, and I had to unsubscribe from a Google alert for my wife’s name because her beautiful book was so frequently showing up in banned book lists. It’s a non-fiction book for kids about gender. Inclusive of all kids. Not just trans kids, all kids. www.amazon.com/dp/125030295...

304d ago

Rochester LGBTQ+ Together

@roclgbtqtogether.bsky.social

“Read the books they’re banning. That’s where the good stuff is.” ~ LeVar Burton, Host of Reading Rainbow (1983-2006) October 4–10, 2026 is Banned Books Week. This year’s theme is Let Books Be — Protect the Freedom to Read. 🌈📖📚

224d ago

E.K. Johnston

@ekjohnston.bsky.social

The fun part is that it wasn't *technically* banned. Various school boards were just instructed not to buy it in the first place. This is called "Shadow Banning", and it's right up there with publishers not publishing queer books because the market is "too risky" or whatever.

That Inevitable Victorian Thing by EK Johnston

254d ago

Deborah Lynn

@mrsdeborahlynn.bsky.social

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news... Nearly 12,000 bans took place in public schools over the past year, according to a new study from PEN America. Highest total since they began tracking removals 5 years ago. For the 2nd straight year, Stephen King was the author most likely to have his work withdrawn.

154d ago

American Library Association

@amlibraryassoc.bsky.social

Join #BannedBooksWeek Honorary Chair Tony Weaver, Jr. and 2026 Youth Honorary Chairs for a conversation about how censorship affects young people and why their voices matter in the fight for the freedom to read. Find more Banned Books Week events: www.ala.org/bbooks/events #LetBooksBe

214d ago

Charlene Chua

@charlenedraws.bsky.social

Oh... it's Banned Books Week again too. I feel like I should say something, but every year IDK what to say. I guess all I can say for sure is I have not gotten rich from the banned & challenged books, so if you think it's great being banned coz more people will buy your book... you're mistaken.

244d ago

Emily Drabinski

@edrabinski.bsky.social

The times I’ve been told to keep my mouth shut! Happy banned books week!

284d ago

Threeriversbard

@threeriversbard.bsky.social

“A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing but not half as much as bad as a lot of ignorance.” Sir Terry Pratchett. www.nbcnews.com/news/us- news/florida-texas-lead-record-12000-school-book-bans-pen-america-report-fi-rcna601684

114d ago

3 sources

theguardian.comUS book bans in public schools reach record annual high of 12,000 washingtonpost.comBanned book or not? Can you guess from the plot?btpm.orgAuthor Rashad Robinson brings ‘From Presence to Power’ to Buffalo for Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week, Oct 4, 10; US school bans reach record 12,000books

Banned Books Week, Oct 4, 10; US school bans reach record 12,000

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