NEW YORK (AP) — Jodi Picoult remembers when everyone seemed to be praising her novel “Nineteen Seconds,” a 2007 bestseller about a school shooting that now tops the list compiled by PEN America among the most banned books in schools.

“Not only was it recommended for young adults to read, but it was included in the school curriculum where it is now banned,” the author said during a recent telephone interview.

On Friday, PEN issued a report which expands on the figures released in September for Banned Books Weekwhen libraries and stores across the country brought out censored works. PEN compiled more than 10,000 cases of temporarily or permanently removed books in the 2023-2024 academic year, about four times more than for 2021-2022. The bans affected about 4,200 individual titles, up from about 1,600 two years ago.

More than 80% of the bans entered Iowa and Floridastates that have passed laws restricting textbooks. About 4,500 were removed in Florida and more than 3,600 in Iowa, according to PEN.

What students can read in schools provides the foundation for their lives, whether it’s critical thinking, empathy through difference, personal well-being, or long-term success,” PEN Director of the Freedom to Read Program Kasey Meehan said in a statement. “Defending the core principles of public education and the freedom to read, learn, and think is as necessary now as ever.”

Besides “Nineteen Minutes,” the most frequently removed books include “Looking for Alaska” by John Green, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and several novels by romance favorite Sarah J. . Maas. Many of the works had themes of sex, race or gender identity.

Picoult noted that objections to her book centered on a single page that referred to a date rape.

“There was nothing free about it. It’s not porn,” she said. “I think some people are unhappy because it makes you look at the world in a different way. That’s behind a lot of the bans.”