Texas bans more books than any other state
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
It's Banned Books Week and a new report from writers' group PEN America shows Texas has banned more books than any other state.
- The PEN America report found that 1,648 individual book titles were banned nationwide in 2,532 decisions from July 2021 to June 2022.
- Texas' total number of bans during that period was 801 in 22 school districts, far outpacing No. 2 Florida, which banned 566 books in 21 districts.
Catch up quick: Pressure from Republican leaders, activist groups and some parents have pushed school districts to review or remove books they've deemed inappropriate in Texas and across the country.
Zoom in: The report mentions bans in 32 states, including the 22 districts in Texas.
- The analysis includes suburban Leander ISD, where district officials banned at least 11 books from classrooms, including "The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel" and "V for Vendetta."
- Plus, Fredericksburg ISD saw 42 instances of books banned in libraries and classrooms or in instances where a title was removed during an investigation to determine whether or not to restrict it.
- North East ISD, near San Antonio, had the most bans with 435, followed by Granbury ISD with 133.
Yes, but: The analysis details only bans reported to PEN America or challenges that made the news.
Details: Some of the banned books were on our high school English reading lists, including classics "Of Mice and Men" and "The Bluest Eye," the latter ranking eighth among the most-challenged books in 2021.
Of note: While the publicity surrounding book bans has led to an increase in sales, some authors fear their books won't be read by students who can solely access library books.