The Top 15 Books Removed
From Public Schools
Fact-Checking "Book Bans"
This list varies significantly compared to others’ presented online. Most lists of these so-called “Banned Books” claim novels about LGBT issues or books written by people of color are being censored in a far right wing effort to prevent students from having access to “liberal” ideas. This is not true. According to the PEN America index, the books challenged in public schools have nothing to do with LGBT issues. Most don’t even feature a single gay character. Only one book in the top 15 was written by a person of color (Khaled Hosseini). People of color are not being targeted by these book challenges. I don’t know if the people writing these inflammatory articles are making things up themselves, or just repeating things they’ve seen without fact-checking, but it needs to fucking stop.
It’s just disgusting to me that this false narrative regarding books & public school libraries has been spread so pervasively online. I know it shouldn’t shock me as an adult when the media lies to me, fabricating stories to spread fear and anxiety, but it does. I’ve just been left disappointed by this whole endeavor. Almost every fact-check exposed another round of lies.
Nineteen Minutes
Jodi Picoult
“Nineteen Minutes was banned in Texas in 2024 because the Katy Independent School District believed it promoted gender fluidity.” – Wiki
“Nineteen Minutes is banned not because it’s about a school shooting, but because of a single page that depicts a date rape and uses anatomy correct words for the human body.” -Jodi Picoult
Removed from 98 School Districts or 0.78% of School Districts in the U.S.
This reasoning is especially interesting to me because there is no gender fluid character in the novel, nor is there any promotion of gender fluidity. How could a book possibly be removed for promoting something it does not contain?
A synopsis reads: “Nineteen Minutes tells the story of a mass shooting at Sterling High School.. It follows Peter Houghton’s massacre through the grounds of his school after enduring years of brutal bullying by his peers.” This book presents Peter as a sympathetic character, pushing audiences to feel sorry for school shooters and rationalizing such a violent response to being bullied.
Do I think a book romanticizing a school shooting should be given to high schoolers when these crimes are already occurring at increasingly higher rates?
Call me Crazy but Fuck No.
Looking for Alaska
John Green
“Looking for Alaska by John Green has been banned in some places due to complaints about its content including: sexually explicitly scenes, underage drinking and smoking, strong language, and the portrayal of certain themes like hazing and LGBTQIA+ experiences, which some find inappropriate for younger readers.” – marshall.edu
Removed from 97 School Districts or 0.77% of School Districts in the U.S.
“Underage drinking and smoking” is a pretty vanilla way of describing the scenes in the book. After a night of drinking, the main protagonist, Miles, actively helps his love interest Alaska drive while intoxicated which results in her death. However, there are plenty of books that contain content like this that haven’t been removed.
None of the characters are obviously gay but it’s mentioned Dr. Hyde lost his partner to AIDS which some readers interpret to mean he’s gay. Who fucking cares if a side character is gay?That’s not really the reason it’s “banned.”
Looking for Alaska features a hazing scene where Miles is dumped in a lake while his hands and ankles are bound. Hazing is a big problem among teenagers, with several recent cases coming to mind that have ended in death or serious injury. I can see how school boards wouldn’t want to be culpable for a hazing incident gone wrong if students claimed to be inspired by this scene. It’s a legal issue. The rest of the complaints provided feel like fluff to me.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chomsky
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower has been banned in some schools due to concerns about its sexual content, depiction of drugs and alcohol, and potential harm to students.” -marshall.edu
Removed from 85 School Districts, or 0.67% of School Districts in the U.S.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower seems to cover every controversial topic that immediately comes to mind: Suicide, Childhood Sexual Assault, Abusive Relationships, Abortion, Conversion Camps, Minors Dating Adults, & Involuntary Psych Holds.
It makes sense certain school boards wouldn’t want to provide this book to minors. (Although I don’t see the big deal personally.)
Sold
Patricia McCormick
The book is a fictional account of a girl who is tortured and drugged until she acquiesces to being a child prostitute. I’m on the fence with this one.
“Challenged for being sexually explicit and discussing rape.” -marshall.edu
Removed from 85 School Districts, or 0.67% of School Districts in the U.S.
Thirteen Reasons Why
Jay Asher
“Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher has been banned or challenged in schools because of its graphic content, themes of suicide, and depictions of drug and alcohol use.”
Removed from 76 School Districts, or 0.60% of School District in the U.S.
I can’t believe it’s controversial, but students shouldn’t be reading books that glorify suicide. I’ve read Thirteen Reasons Why and it was so bad I couldn’t finish it. It’s inappropriate to give it to young, impressionable teenager suffering from depression.
Quite frankly, the reasons this fictional character commits suicide are stupid. Like should we be telling students that if they are bullied they should kill themselves? No. Almost everyone gets bullied at some point. Should we be telling students that suicide is a way to cope with being sexually harassed? Definitely not.
In 2019, Jay Asher was accused of sexual misconduct by several women. His resulting defamation lawsuit against them was dismissed “Without Merit” which means the court has deemed the case is not worth consideration. The dismissal of his case in this manner adds to the credibility of the sexual harassment allegations against him.
Crank & Glass
Ellen Hopkins
“A New York Times bestseller, Crank has also regularly featured on banned-book lists because of its depictions of addiction and sex.”
Content Warning about Crank:
“The source material features detailed descriptions of drug use, substance use disorder, abortion, sexual violence, and rape.”
“Glass by Ellen Hopkins has been challenged and banned in schools due to its anti-drug message and controversial topics.” – ncac.org
The removal of Crank is reinforced by its explicit Content Warning. The novel is a poetic, fictionalized version of Hopkins’ daughter’s teenage drug addiction. Although the book does show negative consequences of drug use, Kristina isn’t discouraged from using. She does meth while knowing she’s pregnant.
The sequel Glass has been reportedly removed because of “its anti-drug message” which is total bullshit. No one is in support of underage kids doing illegal drugs. If this is referring to how lousy the “anti-drug” message is then I totally agree. The message is: If you’re a drug addict, you have no personal accountability for your actions. None of the horrible things that happen to you as a result of your drug use are actually your fault, either.
This is not a message we should be propagating to teens. The romanticizing of drug use.
Crank was removed from 76 School Districts, or 0.60%
Glass was removed from 74 School Districts, or 0.59%.
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
“It was challenged for sexual violence, and Islamophobia fueled some challenges, with would-be censors arguing that the novel would inspire terrorism and promoted Islam.” -bannedbooksweek.org
Removed from 73 School Districts, or 0.58%.
How can a book simultaneously be challenged for “Islamophobia” and for “Promoting Islam”?
No further comments.
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
“The influence for banning The Handmaid’s Tale is because of “human sexuality”, “material that may discomfort students”, and “the discussion of feminism and extremism.” -chargerpress.com
Removed from 67 School Districts or 0.53%.
If by “human sexuality” they’re referencing the ritualized and repeated rape then ya know I could see why parents don’t want their kids reading about that. As for “feminism” being a reason for this books challenge, like come on let’s be real here. Public schools start teaching about feminism in pre-K.
As for extremism, there are plenty of other books that condemn religious extremism that are still available in all public schools. For example, The Chrysalids is still a part of the curriculum in many districts and it’s a much harsher denouncement of religion.
Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen
“Water for Elephants is not widely considered a banned book, but in some instances, it has been challenged or removed from school curriculum due to concerns about its depiction of animal abuse….which could be seen as promoting harmful practices towards animals.”
Removed from 66 School Districts, or 0.53%.
Honestly, the few scenes that depict the mistreatment of animals are really not that problematic when compared to the other books on this list. However, school boards can’t have a book that “could be seen as promoting” animal abuse because they could be held liable when it actually happens. While I was in high school, a group of boys bought some baby chicks and tortured them while filming it. Unfortunately, its a more prevalent issue than the average person would like to think.
Tricks
Ellen Hopkins
Although no explicit reasons are given for Tricks being challenged, the content warnings for the books speak for themselves.
“Content warning for drug use, sexual assault, child abuse, and brief gun violence.”
Content Warning: “Features depictions of child sexual abuse, child abuse, antigay bias, substance use, addition, graphic violence, illness, death, mental illness, suicidal ideation, self-harm, and sexual content.”
Removed from 66 School Districts, o 0.53%.
Tricks follows 5 teenagers running away to Vegas. Eden is a pastor’s daughter who seduces a grown man to escape from a cult facility and then offers blowjobs to other men to hitchhike to Vegas. Seth is a gay teen who is kicked out by his homophobic father, so he exchanges sex for a place to stay with an adult man, which leads to a series of abusive relationships until he becomes an escort. Whitney is groomed by a man at the mall who becomes her pimp and introduces her to heroin. After she is attacked by a john, she overdoses. A teenage Ginger runs away after her mother pays a man to rape her, and she’s eventually arrested for prostitution. Lastly, an underage Cody tries gambling to support his financially struggling family, then turns to prostitution. He ends up in coma when attacked by a “client.”
Unlike Crank and Glass which are based off the real life drug addiction of her daughter, Tricks is completely fictional. Just reading the summary of this book made me uncomfortable. Why would an adult woman feel such a compulsion to write something so fucked up. I just can’t accept it’s “to spread awareness.” It reads like some twisted rape fantasy about minors. It’s fucking disturbing. (Seriously, what the fuck did I just read?) Why would you want children to read this? I just can’t accept it’s “to spread awareness.”
A Court of Thorns and Roses
& Empire of Storms
& A Court of Mist and Fury
& A Court of Wings and Ruin
Sarah J. Maas
“A Court of Thorns and Roses is sometimes banned due to its explicit sexual content, mature themes, and power dynamics depicted in the relationships between characters.” -screenrant.com
“Empire of Storms has been challenged in some schools due to concerns about its content, primarily regarding explicit sexual scenes that some consider inappropriate for young readers.” -brainerddispatch.com
“A Court of Mist and Fury is often banned in schools primarily due to complaints about its sexually explicit content.” -marshall.edu
A Court of Thorns and Roses was removed from 62 (0.49%).
Empire of Storms was removed from 61 (0.49%).
A Court of Mist and Fury was removed from 60 (0.48%).
A Court of Wings and Ruin was removed from 59 (0.47%).
“The reason it [ACOTAR] is banned is not because it’s pornographic. It’s because the protagonist teen is a sexual being.”
An alarming sentiment coming from a grown woman who believes that smut books should be provided for underage students by school libraries. There are not words for how disturbing I find this train of thought. I’ve done a deep dive on ACOTAR, and the reason these books are being removed is because they’re fucking porn.
Should books marketed to adult women as smut be given to minors? Fuck No.
"Rather Fail with Honor than Succeed by Fraud."
Sophocles
Are Books Really Being Banned in Public Schools?
An investigation into Books & Public Schools