America has banned books from the public eye for decades. Book bans hit a record high this past school year, with 11,982 instances across 112 school districts. In every single district’s list, the most banned author was the one and only nationally accredited Stephen King.Â
Stephen King is considered a pillar of the horror genre, famous for his large repertoire of horror and thriller books. His influence has reached the big screen as his most famous works have become iconic movies. It (2017), Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Shining (1980), and the new television series Carrie (2026) are all adaptations of Stephen King’s work. He has also written books on the nuances of writing, like On Writing, and has inspired numerous authors worldwide. He holds strong to his beliefs and writes unapologetically about difficult topics. However, some people take issue with this. Over the past five years, King’s books have faced scrutiny across the United States, and those challenges grow each year. Every single book listed is currently banned in multiple school districts across the country.
Banning a book means removing it from public schools, libraries, and the general public’s access by order of local governments or school boards. The most common reasons a book gets banned are because of racism, LGBTQ+ themes, sexual themes, blasphemy, violence, and opposing the government. Books with these motifs get banned under the idea that limiting children’s access to them protects them. Parents can ensure kids read only what they believe aligns with their morals and values. Stephen King has a plethora of books that encompass these topics, so it’s no surprise that he was at the top of the chopping block. He not only writes about these themes, but makes his opinions about them very clear. He and J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels, have even had highly public online debates about transgender rights.
This is blatant censorship. Selecting what children can and cannot learn about based on arbitrary morals is censorship and could be considered propaganda. According to Penn, Texas had the most banned books this year, with 8,000 total bans across multiple districts. Texas is considered a more conservative state, and by banning books that do not fit their specific beliefs and agendas, they inhibit younger generations from learning about anything that isn’t handpicked for them. This leaves those kids ignorant about things they will absolutely encounter once they leave the bubble they grew up in. Unfortunately, instead of trying to understand what they don’t know, that uncertainty could turn to fear or hate rather than something they are willing to learn.
The state of Texas has issued a new ruling about banning books using Texas Senate Bill 13. The bill allowed the state government to ban any book deemed “indecent” or “profane” but offers no specifics on what that means. Its vagueness has allowed a different kind of book checker to flourish: Bookmarked. Bookmarked is an AI algorithm that scans books and alerts if any fit the obscure rule of being indecent or profane; it also alerts if a book has been previously banned by any district. This has caused various problems in these libraries, including the AI flagging hundreds of books at a time, including books that are required by the Advanced Placement English curriculum. Although the AI cannot decide which books to remove, most of the school boards with this AI in play simply take its word and ban the book regardless of whether they have actually read it. This leads to books like On Writing being banned. On Writing is Stephen King’s memoir combining an autobiographical story with a masterclass in both the art and the hobby of writing. Since King already has multiple banned books, an algorithm is more likely to flag anything he writes, regardless of its contents.
Although Stephen King is the most banned author, countless other books with incredible influence have faced the same punishment. 1984 by George Orwell, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Sold by Patricia McCormick, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, and many other books were banned because their content did not fit a cookie-cutter mold. Banning books, regardless of their content, is not the way to monitor what a child is or isn’t exposed to. It is true that some things young children should not read about; however, banning the book entirely instead of monitoring what your child reads affects the younger generation as a whole. Children are not dumb; they can understand topics many people consider more complex. They also greatly react to what their parents tell them. If, instead of teaching children, the adults around them start fearmongering and policing things they cannot learn, children are raised to be hateful and scared of things that they do not know.Â