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Back in 2023, I wrote about how the average age of the most commonly banned books is 14 years old. The books being targeted are nowhere near new, and this is important to talk about because it highlights the charade undergirding the “parental rights” movement. A good chunk of the most banned books were sitting on shelves when these parents were themselves teenagers and they didn’t cause such fomenting then.
Today’s teens, who were born between 2006 and 2012, are significantly more diverse than in previous generations. One-quarter of teens identify as LGBTQ+ — and that’s the 25% who openly identify that way — while only half of today’s teens identify as white, non-Hispanic. One in four of today’s teens are Hispanic, 14% are Black, 6% are Asian, and 5% are bi- or multi-racial. Nearly 1/4 of Generation Z are the children of immigrants and 66% live in a household with married parents. All of that data comes from PEW Research.
Books by and about people of color, queer people, and those living at the intersections of those identities have increased in publication since the founding of We Need Diverse Books in July 2014, 11 years ago. This was a watershed year, as it came with increased demands for better representation in books, especially in YA. Things are still nowhere near parity with what the U.S. population looks like, but for the purposes of this post, what’s important to know is there are more books by and about BIPOC and queer people in YA than ever before.
Despite growth in diversity both in publishing and in young people, it is curious to see that the most banned and challenged books in the USA aren’t primarily new titles. These books, many classics of course, are not contemporary depictions of concerns or realities of today’s teens; good literature endures, so this isn’t a condemnation of that. Instead, it’s meant to be a reminder that the rhetoric around these so-called inappropriate books is pulled from contemporary partisanship and applied to titles that have been sitting on shelves for several years, if not several decades. Many of the books that “parental rights” advocates challenge are books that were sitting on shelves when they were the same age as their kids, if no sitting on shelves when their parents were kids. Why the anger now? Because it’s convenient and because it’s all made up.
In the nearly two and a half years since last looking at the average age and publication dates of the most frequently banned and challenged books, there have been big changes in the ways that books are targeted. Early in the rise of book banning, titles were targeted on the local level. That is, we’d see one or several books become issues in individual school districts or public libraries–and to be clear, those were being shepherded by national organizations who operated on the local level. In the time since, the efforts have become far more about implementing laws and regulations at the state level that curtail or remove access to books in those same local-level institutions. So rather than seeing a number of books by authors of color being banned at different libraries, states are now subjecting and directing all public libraries to remove books tackling topics like diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) or “gender ideology”–books with LGBTQ+ topics.
Literary Activism
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Recognizing this shift is important, as it helps understand the different numbers related to the books being banned and because it better showcases why and how engaging with legislators is crucial for the efforts to stop book censorship. The trend in book censorship is upward. That’s why so many of the early participants in book banning are now part of the current federal administration (see Moms for Liberty’s part in a “DEI” snitch line via the Department of Education and their engagement in creating a “new” civics curriculum to lie to young people about America’s history).
Utilizing the most recent data from both PEN America and the American Library Association (ALA), I’ve noted the publication dates for every title in the top 9/10 most banned and challenged books. You can spend time looking at PEN and ALA’s introductions to understand why the titles differ slightly between the organizations.
PEN America’s Most Banned Books 2024-2025
- A Clockwork Orange, published in 1962
- Breathless, published in 2020
- Sold, published in 2006
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club, published in 2021
- A Court of Mist and Fury, published in 2016
- Crank, published in 2004
- Forever…, published in 1975
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, published in 1999
- Wicked, published in 1995
The average publication date of PEN America’s most banned books for the 2024-2025 school year is 2000, making the average age of the books being banned in US public schools 25 years old.
Given that there is a big spread of dates with PEN’s most banned books, it’s worth looking at the median publication date and age as well. The median publication date is 2004, making the median age of the books being banned in US schools 21 years old.
That’s a lot older than the books being banned in the 2023 analysis. The average publication date then was 2008, making them an average of 15 years old; the median publication date then was 2014, with a median age of 9.
The American Library Association’s Most Challenged Books of 2024
- All Boys Aren’t Blue, published in 2020
- Gender Queer, published in 2019
- The Bluest Eye, published in 1970
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, published in 1999
- Tricks, published in 2009
- Looking for Alaska, published in 2005
- Me & Earl & The Dying Girl, published in 2012
- Crank, published in 2004
- Sold, published in 2006
- Flamer, published in 2020
The average publication date of the American Library Association’s most challenged books from 2024 is 2006, making the average age of the books being banned in US libraries 19 years old.
For sake of consistency, let’s also look at the median dates and ages of these titles. Our two median publication dates are 2006 and 2009, averaging 2007.5; let’s make it 2008 for simplicity’s sake. The median publication date is 2008, making the median age of the books being banned in US libraries 17 years old.
That is also a lot older than books being banned in 2023. The average publication date then was 2010, making them 13 years old; the median publication date was 2015, making the median age eight.
Now let’s look at the combined dataset to see what the average age of the most banned books as recorded by two different institutions is. To do this, I’ve only included each book on the list once, even if it appears on both lists. There are 16 unique titles.
The full list of books and publication dates that are the most banned in the country over the last year are:
- A Clockwork Orange, published in 1962
- Breathless, published in 2020
- Sold, published in 2006 (on both lists)
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club, published in 2021
- A Court of Mist and Fury, published in 2016
- Crank, published in 2004 (on both lists)
- Forever…, published in 1975
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, published in 1999 (on both lists)
- Wicked, published in 1995
- All Boys Aren’t Blue, published in 2020
- Gender Queer, published in 2019
- The Bluest Eye, published in 1970
- Tricks, published in 2009
- Looking for Alaska, published in 2005
- Me & Earl & The Dying Girl, published in 2012
- Flamer, published in 2020
The average banned book in America was published in 2003, making the average age of the books being banned most frequently right now 22 years old. Again, this is a lot older than just two years ago.
If you want to go with median, there are two middle dates, 2006 and 2009, again averaging 2007.5. let’s make it 2008 for simplicity’s sake. The median publication date is 2008, making the median age of the books being banned in US libraries 17 years old.
These are not new books.
This kind of data is interesting to consider and indicative of how slapdash and nonsensical the push to ban books is. There’s nothing cohesive here except an interest in removing the stories, voices, and perspectives of people of color, of queer people, and of books that speak honestly to the issues of sex, sexuality, puberty, and adolescence.
The ages of these books is not reflective of the thousands of other books being banned right now, across the country, and it is certainly not reflective of the hundreds or thousands of books not being purchased or being quietly removed from shelves through silent/quiet censorship.
But again and again: it’s not new books. The “parental rights” advocates are not doing anything radical or interesting. They’re only pushing their agendas into public institutions of democracy as a means of toppling the few spaces in American life that are about embracing, celebrating, and meeting the needs of the whole community and doing so on shoestring budgets.
Book Censorship News: October 3, 2025
- In what is some really devastating and infuriating news, “A district court in Florida on Monday ruled that the Escambia County school board had not violated the First Amendment rights of students or authors when it removed a children’s book from its school libraries called “And Tango Makes Three,” which is about two gay male penguins raising a penguin chick.” This is one of two lawsuits against the Escambia County school board, and this decision included references to the recent Fifth Circuit case about the First Amendment rights of public library users in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
- Amanda Jones, librarian who has been at the front lines in the fight against censorship for years, is among TIME Magazine’s 100 Next. An amazing and necessary honor.
- Lamar Consolidated Independent School District (TX) has removed over 700 books from shelves. My book Body Talk is among the 700.
- Moorhead, Minnesota, schools have removed the book Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness from their middle school shelves, as some have called it “racist.” Recall Minnesota has an anti-book ban bill. . . and the book isn’t racist.
- Leander Independent School District (TX) has pulled dozens of books from classroom shelves, including classics like To Kill a Mockingbird, in response to the new Senate Bill 12. That bill is their “anti-DEI” law.
- U.S. Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania are trying to pass a bill to un-ban the nearly 600 books pulled from military schools nationwide. (My book Body Talk is among them).
- “Should we override what a trained teacher thinks is appropriate curriculum?” Fuentes asked. “Yes,” replied board member Matt Freeze. “As a board, we control what we want our students to read and have. We decide what we want in our school.” A perfectly indicative conversation in places like Indiana, where school board members are excited to be endowed with power over education, even when they themselves know nothing about how education works.
- Florida’s state officials released their annual list of books banned across the state, but it is a deep undercount, completely ignoring the rash of bans that occurred over the summer.
- The bigots running the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) plan to continue withholding state funds to Fairhope Public Library, as Fairhope won’t ban all of the LGBTQ+ books that the APLS wants gone.
- Speaking of APLS, Alabama residents have until October 14 to submit comments related to their plan to ban all transgender books from minors in libraries.
- “A new parental guidance labeling policy, intended to alert parents of young readers about mature themes in Alamance County [NC] library materials, is being implemented in such a piecemeal fashion it borders on obstruction, according to a member of the county’s library committee who helped to shepherd the policy to adoption by Alamance county’s commissioners this spring.” Remember labeling is still censorship and it opens up the library to plenty of lawsuits. What happens if they don’t label a book that the banners don’t like? Lawsuit. Not to mention that labeling appropriate takes a long time; the library probably got no additional support to shove through the board’s agenda here.
- School board members of Escambia County Schools (FL) past and present are still trying to get out of testifying in the lawsuit over their rampant book banning.
- Cromaine Public Library (MI) has “taken action” on 34 books, following complaints over 200. The “actions?” They include labeling books (setting themselves up nicely for potential lawsuits), removing books, or relocating books. All of these actions are book censorship.
- A nice profile of a new chapter of the student-run DAYLO group in South Carolina.
- How are incarcerated individuals faring when it comes to book bans in California prisons (where, recall, there is an anti-book ban law related to prison censorship)? The answer is not good.
- There’s a new lawsuit against West Point Academy, related to curtailing faculty speech and banning books.
- “A Davidson County school board member is pushing to remove four books from school libraries saying they contain sexually explicit and inappropriate material. ” That North Carolina board member is both a pastor and newly elected board member. Cool.
- The Daviess County, Kentucky, judge who oversees appointments to the local public library board just denied two of the picks by the state library and archives. In place of those, he chose a local pastor and attorney that local book banners are celebrating:
- While we’re in Daviess County, here’s what the situation has looked like at their public library. The details the writer drops in this piece are excellent: ““Jesus issued a powerful warning against anyone who would cause little ones to stumble or fall into sin,” said one man, reading from his phone an AI overview provided by Google.”
- York Public Library (ME) will continue to have Pride flags and displays in their new teen area, despite vandalism.
- “In June, Jackson County [NC] commissioners voted 4-1 to withdraw from the Fontana Regional Library system and begin the year-long disentanglement process from the 80-year partnership over LGBTQ+ content.” Cutting off your entire taxpayer base from a wealth of materials because the right-wing board doesn’t like queer people. Super great stuff. Adding a little more to this story: not all of the municipalities covered by this county library are happy about it.
- Colorado’s Anythink Libraries are making 300 banned books available to all state residents digitally.
- A west Michigan “parental rights advocate” had a judge dismiss her lawsuit against the local school district she’s been pestering because they did not harm her First Amendment Rights by asking her to stop calling out staff members on her social media. Also this: “Boone also claimed the district violated Title IX, saying she was “marginalized” by the community for voicing her objection to the school’s book offerings. The judge ruled that because she claims she was marginalized, not her students in the district, she had no standing to sue under Title IX.”
- The Meeker Regional Library Board (CO) met to discuss their collection policies this week, leading to one board member to pen an editorial for the paper about why they got involved in the board. Why, you may wonder? “I believe a culturally and morally conservative approach in the collection of books and materials in the library is beneficial to our community. I also desire to see more books and materials that support a Christian worldview. I am not trying to create a seminary-like collection. I believe a more balanced collection policy is needed to represent our traditional, political and socially conservative community, I will continue to strive to that end. My personal action point came at the meeting in 2022 when the book “Gender Queer” was discussed at a public meeting. I believe this book meets the definition of pornography and promotes an immoral and harmful worldview. ” This isn’t an unbiased board member. This is a board member who only cares about getting rid of what they don’t like and amping up what they do. Public libraries meet the needs of the whole community which, no matter what a board member believes, is not entirely “traditional, political and socially conservative.” Those are dog whistles. This letter is unhinged.
- The Taliban has banned 700 books and 18 academic subjects in Afghan universities; most of those relate to women and women’s rights. Sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it?
Next week is Banned Books Week. It’s going to be a lot of information and programming and events. Let’s not forget that the goal is to encourage collective action that lasts the whole year.
One thing I hope might help? A free printable bookmark with steps anyone can take to protect the freedom to read. I made these for my local indie and am now sharing with anyone who may find them useful.
