What are the top 10 most banned books in the US? See PEN America's list.

Banned Books Week has begun and new titles are dominating this year's top challenged list.

Banned Books Week is Oct. 5-11 and this year's theme is, "Censorship Is so 1984. Read for Your Rights." The theme is inspired by George Orwell's "1984," a dystopian novel that tells the story of a man trying to break away from his society's oppressive regime. Though the novel is set in 1984 (the book was published in 1949), freedom advocates argue that the increase of banned books today is similar to the censorship displayed in Orwell's work.

Despite an increase in book bans, polls show that most Americans disagree with them. A 2022 American Library Association poll found that 71% of 1,000 people surveyed oppose book ban efforts.

Those who supported bans expressed a "need to protect young people from books they might find upsetting or that reflect ideologies and lifestyles that are out of the mainstream," according to the survey.

Thousands of books are challenged each year. Here's a look at what titles were banned the most over the past year.

What is Banned Books Week?

Banned Books Week is a movement that celebrates the freedom to read, while drawing attention to censorship of literature in libraries, schools and bookstores. The week of awareness was launched in 1982, created in response to a surge of these challenges, according to the American Library Association.

What are the top 10 most banned books?

According to PEN America, the 10 most challenged books of the 2024-2025 school year were:

1. "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess
2. "Breathless" by Jennifer Niven*
3. "Sold" by Patricia McCormick*
4. "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" by Malinda Lo
5. "A Court of Mist and Fury" by Sarah J. Maas
6. "Crank" by Ellen Hopkins†
7. "Forever..." by Judy Blume†
8. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky†
9. "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Maguire†
10. "All Boys Aren't Blue" by George M. Johnson

*Titles No. 2 and 3 were tied. †Titles No. 6, 7, 8 and 9 were tied.

"All Boys Aren't Blue," "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," "Crank" and "Sold" were also on the American Library Association's Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024 list.

How many books were banned in 2024?

The number of targeted book titles in 2024 is dependent on the source.

The American Library Association says 2,452 unique book titles were challenged in 2024, while PEN America recorded 3,752 unique titles. These differentiating numbers are due to how the two organizations track book bans.

How are the top banned books tracked?

PEN America and the American Library Association track banned books a little differently.

In addition to the number of unique titles affected, PEN tracks the number of challenges each year. This latter number is larger because it accounts for all challenges, even of the same book titles.

As for PEN's methodology, the organization analyzes "all relevant news stories on challenges, restrictions and bans to school library books, curriculum and classroom libraries," according to the PEN website. The organization also consults school district websites and letters sent to school districts and corresponds with librarians, authors and teachers.

The American Library Association compiles its list similarly, analyzing news stories published in the U.S. and reports filed by library professionals.

Both PEN and the American Library Association acknowledges limitations in their reporting. Book challenges and bans that are not reported, aren't picked up by the organizations. And as book bans continue at a rapid rate, it is difficult for the organization to keep on top of them all.

Additionally, PEN only looks at a snapshot of books removed within a one-year period, so books that were previously banned do not make the organization's list.

Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at [email protected].