Nonfiction book removals in U.S. schools doubled, PEN America report finds
- PEN America said on May 7 that U.S. schools removed 1,102 nonfiction titles in 2024-25, part of 3,743 unique books banned. - Nonfiction made up 29% of banned titles, up from 13% a year earlier, with history, health, biography, and memoir heavily hit. - The shift matters because book challenges are moving beyond novels toward factual material students use to learn about bodies, history, and rights.
School book bans used to get framed as fights over novels, graphic scenes, or age-appropriateness. But the new thing is simpler and broader — factual books are getting swept up too. PEN America’s latest report, released May 7, says 1,102 nonfiction titles were removed from U.S. public schools during the 2024-25 school year, more than double the previous year’s share. That changes the shape of the debate, because now the target is not just stories students read for literature class. It is also the books they use to understand history, health, identity, and the world around them. ### What changed this year? The big change is the composition of the bans. PEN tracked 3,743 unique titles removed from libraries or classrooms between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025, across 6,780 total ban instances in 23 states. Of those unique titles, 29% were nonfiction. A year earlier, nonfiction was 13% of banned titles. So the issue is not just that bans stayed high — it is that the movement reached much deeper into informational books. (pen.org) ### What counts as nonfiction here? Not just dry textbooks. PEN’s list includes history books, health books, biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and reference titles for young readers. Basically, these are books anchored in real events, real people, and scientific or historical facts. That matters because removing a novel changes what students can imagine; removing nonfiction changes what students can readily learn. (pen.org) That is a different kind of restriction. ### Which subjects were getting hit? A lot of the removed nonfiction dealt with activism and social movements — 52% of the banned nonfiction titles fell into that bucket. Other common targets covered race and racism, sex education, puberty, gender identity, mental health, and biographies or memoirs by people from marginalized groups. So the pattern is not random. The books most likely to disappear are often the ones that explain contested parts of American life in direct, accessible language for kids and teens. (pen.org) ### Why is nonfiction a bigger deal? Because nonfiction is harder to dismiss as “just a story.” If a school removes a memoir about the civil rights movement, a guide to puberty, or a history of racism, the effect lands on curriculum as much as on library browsing. Turns out that is why this report feels different. It suggests the fight has moved from policing tone and content toward policing which facts, histories, and identities students can encounter in school at all. (pen.org) ### Is this happening everywhere? No — but it is concentrated enough to shape national education politics. PEN says the 2024-25 bans it tracked happened across 23 states. Its broader book-ban tracking shows the campaign has been building for several school years, with tens of thousands of ban cases logged nationwide since 2021. So even when the removals are local, the pressure tactics, model complaints, and political messaging travel fast. (pen.org) ### What is driving the pattern? The report argues that organized censorship campaigns, vague laws, and political pressure are pushing schools to remove books preemptively or after a small number of complaints. The catch is that nonfiction can look especially vulnerable in that environment. A novel can be defended as literature. A health guide or history book gets attacked line by line, as if any disputed topic makes the whole book suspect. (pen.org) That is how a challenge to “content” turns into a challenge to shared reality. ### Does this mean every challenged book is gone for good? Not necessarily. Some removals are temporary while districts review them, and local policies differ. But for students, a book pulled during review is still a book they cannot access when they need it. In practice, a long review can work a lot like a ban — especially in a school year that moves quickly and for students who do not have easy alternatives at home or in public libraries. (pen.org) That is an inference from how school access works, but it fits the removal patterns PEN is documenting. ### Bottom line The headline is not just that book bans remain high. It is that the target list is shifting toward nonfiction — the shelf where schools keep facts, context, and lived history. Once that shelf starts disappearing, the censorship fight stops being only about literature and starts looking a lot more like a fight over what counts as knowable in school. (pen.org)
