PEN America said these bans have targeted 1,145 unique book titles by 874 different authors, 198 illustrators and 9 translators. The report said such districts represented nearly 3,000 schools with a combined enrollment of over 2 million students. PEN America’s recent report found that there were 1,586 book bans or restrictions set in place in school libraries between July 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022. Texas led the country with the most book bans at 713, followed by Pennsylvania (456), Florida (204), Oklahoma (43), Kansas (30) and Tennessee (16), the report said. Many of the laws focus on sexuality, gender identity or race, it said. RELATED: NYC public libraries will end late fees in push for 'equity'Īccording to PEN America, a nonprofit that has been tracking legislation around the country, dozens of bills have been proposed that restrict classroom reading and discussion. We’re talking about K through 12 school libraries, books that are just pornographic and with pedophilic content," Levin added. "Now we’re not talking about a public library or bookstores. The group has called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the availability of "Gender Queer" among other books. "There are some books with pornography and pedophilia that should absolutely be removed from K through 12 school libraries," Yael Levin, a spokeswoman for No Left Turn in Education, a national group calling for public schools to be "free from indoctrination and politicization," told the Associated Press in March. Over the past year, book challenges and bans have reached levels not seen in decades, officials at the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), and other advocates for free expression have told the Associated Press.Ĭensorship efforts have ranged from local communities, such as Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel "Gender Queer: A Memoir" in Orange County, Florida, to a Tennessee school board’s pulling of Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel "Maus," to some statewide initiatives.
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