November 1 (UPI) — More than 10,000 books were banned from public schools nationwide during the 2023-2024 school year, representing a “dramatic” 200% increase from the previous year, PEN America reported Friday.

Some 43% of book ban cases, or 4,295 bans, were cases in which access to books was completely prohibited, ineligible for neither review nor availability with new restrictions imposed, the group found for freedom of expression in its new report, Banned in the United States: Beyond the Shelves.

Cases of complete bans as a percentage of all textbook bans increased by 16 percentage points in 2023-2024 (43%) compared to previous years (27%), according to the report.

Since 2021, PEN America says it has counted nearly 16,000 cases of book bans in public schools.

“This crisis is tragic for young people who hunger to understand the world they live in and to see their identities and experiences reflected in books,” said Kasey Meehan, director of the group’s Freedom to Read program. a declaration.

“The time that passes when you are in grade 6 or 11 is very fast – with a lot to learn,” he added. “What students can read in schools provides the foundation for their lives, whether it is critical thinking, empathy across differences, personal well-being or long-term success.

“Defending the fundamental principles of public education and the freedom to read, learn and think is more necessary than ever.”

Blaming what it called “individuals and groups espousing extremely conservative views,” PEN America said the most targeted titles were those dealing with themes of race, sexuality and gender identity – as in previous years.

A new emerging category of banned books are those that “describe topics young people face in the real world”, such as drug addiction, suicide, depression, mental health issues and sexual violence, the group found .

Florida and Iowa lead the nation in the number of textbook bans. Florida has banned more than 4,500 titles while Iowa has banned more than 3,600. Nationwide, 29 states and 220 public school districts have issued documented bans in the 2023-2024 school year, according to the report.

The most frequently banned books were Nineteen minutes from bestselling author Jodi Picoult, Looking for Alaska by John Green, The perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Sold by Patricia McCormick and Thirteen reasons why by Jay Asher.

Nineteen minutes is a 2007 bestseller about a school shooting. Its author, Jodi Picoult, said the rapidly growing number of book bans was “a wake-up call”.

“Nineteen minutes is banned not because it involves a school shooting, but because of a single page that describes rape and uses words that are anatomically correct for the human body,” she said. “It’s not gratuitous or salacious, and it’s not – as the book banners claim: porn.

“In fact, hundreds of children have told me that reading Nineteen minutes stopped them from committing a school shooting or showed them they weren’t alone in feeling isolated. My book, and the ten thousand others that have been removed from school libraries this year, give children a tool to cope with an increasingly divided and difficult world. These book banners don’t help children. They hurt them,” added Picoult.