Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes tops a list of the books most banned in schools.
The author said her 2007 bestseller about a school shooting was widely acclaimed and included in school curriculums when it was first published. Now, it finds itself at the top of a list by PEN America of books most frequently banned in schools.
“Not only was it recommended for young adults to read, but it was on the curriculum in schools where it’s now banned,” Picoult shared in a recent phone interview. PEN released a report detailing an alarming increase in book bans, with over 10,000 instances of books being removed during the 2023-2024 academic year—nearly quadruple the number from 2021-2022 on Friday.
These bans impacted approximately 4,200 unique titles, a significant jump from the 1,600 affected two years prior.
The majority of these bans occurred in Iowa and Florida, states that have enacted laws limiting the availability of certain books in schools. Florida saw over 4,500 books removed, while Iowa had more than 3,600, as reported by PEN.
Kasey Meehan, director of PEN’s Freedom to Read program, said accessible reading material in schools fosters critical thinking, empathy, personal well-being, and long-term success. “What students can read in schools provides the foundation for their lives, whether critical thinking, empathy across difference, personal well-being, or long-term success,” Meehan said.
She underscored the urgent need to defend public education’s core principles and the freedom to read, learn, and think.
Apart from Nineteen Minutes, frequently banned books include John Green’s “Looking for Alaska,” Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple,” Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and several novels by Sarah J. Maas, known for her romantasy genre.
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Many of these works feature themes of sex, race, or gender identity. Picoult pointed out that objections to her book focused on a single page that mentions date rape.
“There was nothing gratuitous about it. It’s not porn,” she said. “I think that some people are unhappy because it makes you look at the world in a different way. That’s what’s behind a lot of the bans.”
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