Support PEN America in Honor of Jodi Picoult’s book, Nineteen Minutes to Fight Back Against Book Bans and Censorship


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The number of times Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes was banned in U.S. schools from 2021 through 2025. The second most banned book during that time.
PEN America has documented nearly 23,000 book bans in public schools since 2021—systemic censorship never before seen in the lives of living Americans. Mobilized by groups espousing extremist viewpoints, including Christian nationalism and parental rights rhetoric, the censorship predominantly targets books about race and racism or books featuring individuals of color and LGBTQ+ people and topics, as well as books intended for high school readers that have sexual references or discuss sexual violence.
PEN America’s most recent report for the 2024-2025 school year recorded 6,870 instances of book bans affecting nearly 4,000 unique titles. For the third straight year, Florida was the No. 1 state for book bans, with 2,304 instances of bans, followed by Texas with 1,781 bans and Tennessee with 1,622. All three of those states have laws that inflamed the book banning crisis across their state’s public schools.
PEN America’s book ban advocacy work is made possible by the support of donors, activists, authors, educators, librarians, parents, and readers concerned about censorship in America’s schools. Join us.

