The Cobb County School District in Georgia has removed The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison from its libraries for middle and high school students. School officials cited specific passages they considered sexually explicit and inappropriate for students, particularly a scene in which Pecola, one of the main characters, is raped by her father. The district stated that a review of the novel found several sections to violate the standards for books accessible to students from sixth grade to twelfth grade in the United States. Superintendent Chris Ragsdale explained that schools should not allow unrestricted access to explicit descriptions of incest and rape, emphasizing that such decisions should be left to parents. The district clarified that other works by Morrison available in schools remain accessible. The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is Morrison’s first novel and the work for which she later won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. The story follows Pecola Breedlove, a Black girl growing up in Ohio in the 1940s, and explores themes such as racism, beauty standards, poverty, and sexual violence. In France, the book has been translated by Jean Guiloineau, and a new edition was released by Christian Bourgois in 2024. The removal of The Bluest Eye is not an isolated incident. The book frequently appears on lists of the most contested books in American schools and libraries. In 2024, it entered the top 10 of the most censored books in the United States. In 2023, it was challenged mainly for its descriptions of rape and incest, its explicit sexual content, and its themes related to equity and diversity. Other books frequently contested include works by Juno Dawson, George M. Johnson, Stephen Chbosky, and John Green. Since 2021, PEN America, a free speech advocacy group, has documented nearly 23,000 cases of book bans or restrictions in American public schools, spread across 45 states and 451 school districts. For the school year 2024–2025 alone, the group counted 6,870 such cases. In Cobb County, 30 books have been removed since 2024, with The Bluest Eye being the first affected in 2026. Other books removed include This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, and several books from the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas. The removal of The Bluest Eye comes shortly after PEN America released its report Out of Circulation: Expanding Censorship in Public Libraries. The report highlights increasing pressures on public libraries, including removal requests, political pressures, budget cuts, and staff intimidation. PEN America says these institutions are reaching a "breaking point." In January 2025, the U.S. Department of Education eliminated the federal position responsible for handling complaints about book bans and abandoned several procedures. The department stated that the selection of books in school libraries should primarily be decided by parents, schools, and local authorities. It called claims of a "wave of book censorship" a "hoax." PEN America and the American Library Association, however, use the terms "restriction" or "ban" when a book is removed, suspended, or made unavailable to certain students after a dispute. This disagreement also centers on the terminology used and the extent of authority given to schools, parents, and librarians in deciding what books are accessible to students.