From July 2021 to June 2022 alone, approximately 2500 books were banned from school libraries and classrooms in 138 school districts in the United States. Examples of literary works banned from U.S. school libraries and classrooms include “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, and “WeirDo Series” by Anh Do.

This high number comes from PEN America’s research.

Thus, the banning of textbooks appears to be a common practice in some states in the United States. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, is currently considered Donald Trump’s biggest rival among the 2024 Republican presidential candidates. At the end of March, DeSantis passed a law in Florida banning the discussion of sexuality in schools. The non-profit organization “Moms for Liberty” welcomes this law: It seeks the banning of allegedly obscene, satanic and subversive books. The American Library Association (ALA), as a counter-movement, advocates for the release of the banned books and against further banning of books.

The divergent movements show: U.S. society seems divided regarding censorship in school libraries and classrooms.

We, a group of students from Kassel, Germany, have added nearly 1000 titles to the Kasseler Liste.

Our research is based on PEN America’s database. Only books in the categories of „Banned in Libraries“, „Banned in Classrooms“, and „Banned in Libraries and Classrooms“ were included. Books in the „Banned Pending Investigation“ category were not included because decisions about possible banning are still in process.

The database is dynamic as new bannings are issued and old bannings are lifted over time. The latest status we refer to here is July 2022.