How many books were banned in schools in your state?
School book bans rose to a five-year peak during the 2025-2026 school year. That’s according to the nonprofit PEN America, which tracks book bans across the nation. (FOX 9)
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - School book bans rose to a five-year peak during the 2025-2026 school year.
That’s according to the nonprofit PEN America, which tracks book bans across the nation.
Book bans on the rise
By the numbers:
This year, 11,982 books were banned from school libraries. That’s nearly 2,000 more books than the last peak during 2023-2024 school year.
According to PEN, Ohio had more book bans than any other state in the Midwest. During the 2025-2026 school year, Ohio schools removed 117 books from library shelves.
Minnesota followed with 80 bans.
Michigan schools banned a total of 68 books this school year, while Iowa schools pulled 49 books from their library stacks.
Meanwhile, schools in Indiana banned six books.
Per PEN, no books were banned this year in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois.
Book bans nationwide
Dig deeper:
According to PEN, the bulk of the country’s book bans came from Texas, where 8,193 titles were pulled from library shelves, and from Florida, where 3,212 books were banned.
Nationally, 78% of the books banned contained general prose, while 14% were graphic novels or manga.
Stephen King had his titles banned in 312 instances, the most of any single author.
He also had the largest number of unique titles affected by book bans.
The Source: This report was written using data from a PEN America report.