Of the total number of appealed materials, 66 per cent were withdrawn entirely, while a further 920 titles were partially censored – moved to less accessible shelves.
The ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom registered an appeal for 4,235 titles – the second highest total in more than 30 years after a record 4,240 books in 2023. About 40 per cent of challenged material contained references to LGBTQ+ people or ethnic minorities.
The most frequently banned novel was Sold (Sold, 2006) by Patricia McCormick, which is about sex trafficking in India.
Other books frequently banned include Stephen Chbosky’s Hello, It’s Charlie or Preference for the Shy, Maya Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir, and Sarah J. Maas’s Empire of Storms.
According to the report, pressure from organised structures has increased significantly: while in 2024 72% of complaints came from organised groups, officials and politicians, in 2025 this figure has risen to 92%. At the same time, parents initiated only 2.7 per cent of appeals and individual library patrons 1.4 per cent.
In 2025, book bans were not initiated by concerned parents and were not the result of local community initiatives. They were part of a well-funded, politically driven campaign to suppress the stories and experiences of the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities,
– said Sarah Lamdan, executive director of ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, in a commentary for The Guardian.
At the same time, the states of Florida, Texas and Utah have passed laws to remove books related to sexual orientation and gender identity topics from school libraries because they are deemed “harmful to minors.”
The ALA distinguishes between “challenge” – an attempt to restrict access to material – and “ban,” which is the actual removal of a book from a library.
The organisation traditionally publishes a list of the ten most frequently banned books, but this year’s list included eleven entries, as four titles shared eighth place. Overall, the analysis is based on 713 documented attempts at censorship in 2025, of which 487 were directly related to books.
We will remind, earlier we told you about Ukrainian writers who after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine joined the ranks of the AFU. At the same time, they continue to create and write until now.