What We Know About Book Bans After Five Years of Data and Documentation
Welcome to The Best of Book Riot. Here’s your weekend highlight reel of the week’s most popular stories. But as we roll into our fifth year of ongoing book censorship, what do we actually know about the books being targeted? Pulling from both ALA and PEN’s Top Ten Lists, as well as the titles on the official state banned lists from Utah and South Carolina between 2021 and 2026, here’s some insight of note. Florida’s unofficial list is not included here because it is not official state documentation; however, the books that have been banned as a result of the unofficial list are incorporated in both ALA and PEN’s data. Note that ALA’s data covers five full years, while PEN’s accounts cover four full school years. Their fifth year of data, covering the 2025-2026 school year, will be released in the fall. A total of 11 lists were evaluated: five from ALA, four from PEN, one from Utah, and one from South Carolina. The word “banned” is used to describe all of these books, as …
