PA Has 3rd Most Banned Books Nationwide, As Censorship Soars

PENNSYLVANIA — More than 400 books are either challenged or banned at 11 different school districts in Pennsylvania as controversy over sociopolitical ideologies finds a new battleground in literary censorship.

The statistics come from the literary advocacy group PEN America, which says in its Banned Books Week 2022 report that texts are being restricted in an “unprecedented fashion," often through a coordinated effort by special interest groups.

A majority of the targeted books focus on sexual identity, race, and racism. In Pennsylvania, one school district, Central York, is responsible for 441 of the 459 bans (see full list of banned books in the Keystone State below). Pennsylvania has more banned books than every other state except for Florida or Texas.

The report, “Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools,” said the majority of book bans weren’t “spontaneous, organic expressions” of concern by parents and citizens, but rather “reflect the work of a growing number of advocacy organizations that have made demanding censorship of certain books and ideas in schools part of their mission.”

Students are losing access to literature “that equips them to meet the challenges and complexities of democratic citizenship,” Jonathan Friedman, director of PEN America’s Free Expression and Education Programs and the lead author of the report, said in a news release.

That’s “especially harmful to students from historically marginalized backgrounds, who are forced to experience stories that validate their lives vanishing from classrooms and library shelves,” he said.

The movement has led to "Handmaid's Tale" author Margaret Atwood releasing a special fireproof edition of her seminal novel, including an awareness campaign and promotional video where the 82-year-old takes a flamethrower to it in a symbolic demonstration of its staying power.

Literary freedoms have come under attack in other forms in 2022 as well, with Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie stabbed repeatedly and severely injured by a would-be assassin during an arts festival in New York.

Banning in Pennsylvania

Efforts to ban books circulate online with parents sometimes requesting a book be reconsidered or banned without having read it, but after seeing a post on social media, Friedman told CNN.

PEN America identified 50 groups, many that formed in the last year, that have led the charge to ban books at the national, state and local levels. They include local groups on Facebook and other social media to established conservative groups, including Moms for Liberty, which started in Florida, the No. 2 state for book bans, and now has 200 chapters.

Moms for Liberty has one of its strongest presences in Pennsylvania, where it has chapters in 23 counties statewide. The group is “linked directly” to 20 percent of the book bans enacted in the last school year, the report said.

Such groups could see even more influence under Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, who has promoted "curriculum transparency" legislation that would give parents power of censorship over certain materials, the restriction of "sexual" content in schools, and the resignation of the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education due to sexual orientation resources and gender identity language being provided on the state's website.

The following districts in Pennsylvania have banned books: Central York School District, Downingtown Area School District, East Stroudsburg Area School District, Eastern Lancaster County School District, Elizabethtown Area School District, Fairview School District, Franklin Regional School District, Kutztown Area School District, North Penn School District, Pennridge School District, and Wissahickon School District.

“Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe” was banned more than any other book in the state. Jesse Andrews' "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" was also targeted by multiple disticts.

Other censored titles statewide include: "All Boys Aren't Blue," by George M. Johnson, "Your Name Is A Song," by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison, "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi, "This Is My America" by Kim Johnson, and "Heather Has Two Mommies" by Lesléa Newman.

Banning nationwide

Nationwide, from July 2021 to June 2022, local officials banned 2,532 books by 1,261 authors, 290 illustrators and 18 translators, according to the report. The bans occurred in 138 school districts in 32 states. The districts represent 5,049 schools with a combined enrollment of nearly 4 million students.

“Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe” was also the most commonly banned nationally (banned in 41 districts), followed by “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson (banned in 29 districts) and “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Pérez (banned in 24 districts).

The list of banned books also includes bestselling titles that are the basis of mainstream movies (“The Hate U Give,” “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”) television series (“Thirteen Reasons Why,” “Looking for Alaska”), and a Broadway show (“The Kite Runner”).

The most banned authors include Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and winners of the Booker Prize, the Newbery Award, the Caldecott Medal, and the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

In the past, books were primarily banned because they contained profanity, portrayed violence or, as with the case of the Harry Potter series in the early 2000s, because they portrayed wizardry.

The estimate was based on publicly available information, based appeals made by parents or community groups at school board meetings, as well as informal or formal requests that books on library shelves be reviewed. Moms for Liberty’s influence was likely far wider, the report said, noting that in 30 percent of the bans, similar language or tactics were used.

Other national groups identified in the report are pursuing broader agendas.

“Some of the groups espouse Christian nationalist political views, while many have mission statements oriented toward reforming public schools, in some cases to offer more religious education,” according to the report.

Friedman told CNN some groups formed around “anger fomented against schools during the pandemic” as a result of school closures, mask mandates and vaccine protocol. Others “have been around for a long time and have now moved into putting pressure on schools in new ways or with new success.”

PEN America acknowledges the right to organize and advocate under the First Amendment, but said it is concerned with how those principles are being applied to restrict and ban books.

“While we think of book bans as t he work of individual concerned citizens, our report demonstrates that today’s wave of bans represents a coordinated campaign to banish books being waged by sophisticated, ideological and well-resourced advocacy organizations,” PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel, said in a news release. “This censorious movement is turning our public schools into political battlegrounds, driving wedges within communities, forcing teachers and librarians from their jobs, and casting a chill over the spirit of open inquiry and intellectual freedom that underpin a flourishing democracy.”

A report last week from the American Library Association said efforts to censor books this school year are on track to surpass last year’s count. From Jan. 1-Aug. 31, it tracked 681 attempts to ban or restrict “library resources” in K-12 schools, universities and public libraries nationwide.

Schools, bookstores and libraries around the country are sponsoring local events during the 40th Banned Books Week, which continues through Saturday, with a special focus on the recent sharp rise in book bans. The theme of this year’s observance is “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.”