Houston-area school districts with the most book bans
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Texas recorded the third-highest number of book ban instances in the last school year, distantly following Iowa and Florida, per PEN America, a literacy nonprofit.
Why it matters: Book bans have become central to contemporary culture wars and largely target stories about people of color and LGBTQ+ communities.
- Book bans are also increasingly targeting stories by and about women and girls, along with those that include depictions of rape or sexual abuse, according to the nonprofit, which advocates for authors' rights.
How it works: The numbers refer to actions taken, not individual books banned.
Zoom in: Schools in the Houston suburbs alone faced 155 book bans, per PEN America's "Banned in the USA: Beyond the Shelves" study.
The big picture: There were more than 10,000 book bans across the U.S. during the 2023-2024 school year — a jump from 3,362 recorded in the previous year.
- About 8,000 of the book bans were recorded in Florida and Iowa, largely due to state laws, according to PEN America.
The intrigue: The top five banned books in the U.S. were "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult, "Looking for Alaska" by John Green, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky, "Sold" by Patricia McCormick and "Crank" by Ellen Hopkins.
By the numbers: During the the 2023-2024 school year, Conroe Independent School District had 106 book ban attempts, followed by Katy ISD (19), Fort Bend ISD (17) and Klein ISD (13).
Between the lines: Republican-led efforts to pass legislation restricting access to certain materials have increased over the past couple of years, with the party's influence set to grow under President-elect Trump's upcoming term.