The fastest-growing target in America’s book ban wave might surprise you

Book bans are on the rise—and they’re increasingly focused on censoring facts. In a new report on banned books in U.S. public schools, the free expression advocacy group PEN America found that the number of nonfiction books pulled from shelves doubled last year. The group describes a “surge” of book bannings targeting nonfiction science, history, and biographic titles, including books about the digestive system and ancient Egypt. PEN America conducted an analysis of 3,743 books removed from American school libraries and classrooms in the 2024-2025 academic year. Of the banned titles, 29% (1,100) were nonfiction, up from 14% the previous school year. Fiction titles still make up the lion’s share of banned books, but the spike in nonfiction books targeted for their content is particularly alarming and hints at a new frontier in American academic censorship. Compared with the prior school year, the portion of educational and informational books banned grew from 5% of all banned titles to 13%. “This latest trend shows an embrace of anti-intellectualism, undermining public knowledge by devaluing education and expertise,” Kasey Meehan, PEN America’s Freedom to Read program director, said in a statement. “It is another example of how censorship sweeps broadly, leading to removals of all kinds of books, in its efforts to sow fear and distrust in our public education system.” Books aren’t banned in a vacuum. Titles can be flagged and pulled in a few different ways, including through parent or community interventions, by administrative decision, or in response to government policies. When a single book is banned, hundreds of copies of that title might be pulled from circulation in a school district across libraries and classrooms. Anatomy of a banned book In its report, Pen America identified a number of trends in the titles being pulled from school shelves. Of the 3,743 unique titles banned during the last school year, 57% of those books contained violence, 48% address