Five years ago, Nicole, a mother living in Pinellas County, Florida, noticed that certain books had been removed from her children’s school.
Her children themselves noticed that some books were no longer available, which she confirmed through conversations with teachers and librarians.
So Nicole decided to buy her four children books they couldn't find in school - a situation she admits is very different from the reality in most families.
“Where I live, there are communities that don’t have the extra income to buy books,” she said.
She added: "Due to work schedules, parents and grandparents looking after children are unable to take their children to the library."
America's public libraries have become battlegrounds for fierce ideological debates among parents, teachers, librarians, activist groups and politicians over which books should be available to children.
According to statistics from the Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association (ALA), in 2025 alone, 6,588 incidents of book censorship occurred in public and school libraries—that is, books were completely removed from the shelves or moved to more restrictive areas.
There are 4,235 specific titles affected.
By comparison, between 2001 and 2020, an average of 70 books were censored each year.
Organizations monitoring the matter believe the actual number is likely much higher because the book removals have not yet been noticed.
“Never before have so many children been deprived of so many stories,” says a new report from PEN America. The organization aims to defend free speech and monitor book censorship.
The increase coincides with the passage of dozens of state laws and even some federal measures aimed at restricting public schools' access to books deemed inappropriate.
"What we've seen over the past few years is a very different escalation," Gianmarco Antosca of the US-based organization National Coalition Against Censorship explained to the BBC.
"The banning of books seems to have spread beyond schools. We are seeing banning legislation in many states and even at the federal level."
Organizations supporting the restrictions and the officials who pushed them say their sole goal is to prevent children from being exposed to age-inappropriate content.
They also said the restrictions were meant to defend parents' right to make decisions about their children's education.
Moms for Liberty is one of the most active civil society groups challenging the content of books.
The organization declined an interview with the BBC, but its executive director Tina Descovich said in a statement: "(We) are committed to protecting children from sexually explicit and ideological material that is inappropriate for their age in school libraries."
But who decides which books are appropriate for school libraries, and how?
How books were banned
Book bans in U.S. public schools are not uniform across the country and do not always follow the same procedures.
For example, according to PEN America, hundreds of book removals occurred in Florida and Texas between 2024 and 2025, while no such incidents were recorded in states such as Oklahoma and New Mexico.
The process of removing a book from a public school typically begins with parents or other community members deeming the book inappropriate and filing a formal objection with the local education department.
One notable example is Hillsborough County, Florida, home to the city of Tampa.
In mid-2024, local media reported that two senior state officials sent a letter to the Hillsborough County Superintendent of Education asking him to remove books they considered "pornographic" from the county's schools.
Among the 59 books subsequently removed from shelves were André Aciman’s “Call Me by Your Name,” Yaa Gyasi’s award-winning historical novel about two sisters and their descendants born in 18th-century West Africa, “Homecoming,” and “A Clash of Kings,” the second installment in the series that follows the hit TV series “Game of Thrones.” Thrones).
The impact of “self-censorship”
According to William Johnson, director of PEN America's Florida office, the case's impact extends far beyond Hillsborough County.
After receiving the letter and questioning the superintendent, "PEN America documented that at least nine Florida school districts (excluding Hillsborough) removed hundreds of books from classrooms and libraries before the start of the school year."
"These school districts faced the same legal and political environment and chose to withdraw materials to avoid the risk of state enforcement rather than wait for the traditional review process to proceed," he told the BBC.
For example, according to the American Library Association, books that contain sexual minority (LGBT+) characters or address issues such as gender, race, and sexual orientation are more likely to be targeted.
The association also stated that 39% of the books questioned in 2025 told stories about members of the LGBT+ community or minority groups.
Debate over parental rights
There has been a concerted effort by some conservative groups to invoke so-called parental rights - the right to make decisions about their children's education - to challenge the books and lobby for their removal from shelves.
A document from Citizens for Freedom, a group active in the movement, stresses that "parents," not governments or schools, have the "God-given" right to "raise, educate, and morally form their children."
However, there is still debate over whether parents are actually behind the removal of books from school and library shelves.
According to the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, 92% of “book challenges” in 2025 were initiated by advocacy groups and government officials.
“There has never been evidence that this effort was initiated by parents who currently attend public schools,” said Stephana Ferrell, director of the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP) and a mother of two children in Orange County public schools.
She added to the BBC: "From the beginning, this movement has been led by special interest groups with little connection to public schools."
The price of banning books
Nicole, a mother of four who lives in Pinellas County, told the BBC it was because she believed in parents' rights that she opposed banning books in schools.
"By banning books, you are making decisions for other children, not yours."
Nicole emphasized that as a reader and a mother, what she regrets most about banning books in schools is that "you take away other people's mirrors, take away other people's windows, and take away other people's ability to think critically about the world they live in."
A bill proposed by Republican lawmakers is currently before the U.S. Congress.
For Ferrell of the Florida Reading Freedom Project, the most serious consequence of the growing ban on books in the United States is "the silent acceptance that libraries, literature, and the freedom to read are no longer worth defending."
She concluded: “When those who have the power to protect these freedoms choose instead to abandon them, the damage goes far beyond the books themselves.”
