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Utah Orders Seven More Books Out of Every Public School, Bringing the Statewide List to 44

The Utah State Board of Education told every school district on September 28 that seven more titles, including books by Sarah J. Maas, Ellen Hopkins and V.E. Schwab, must come off shelves statewide.

The Publishing Times Editorial Desk · September 30, 2026 · 5 min read

Utah Orders Seven More Books Out of Every Public School, Bringing the Statewide List to 44

Which books did Utah just order out of every public school? Seven more. On Monday, September 28, 2026, the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) emailed the representatives each school district and charter school appoints for sensitive-materials reporting. The email said the following titles "have met the statewide threshold and should be removed from student access in all Utah public schools." The notice came from USBE's Davina Sauthoff. It was forwarded to USBE's secondary English language arts mailing list the next morning, and the text is publicly archived on the Utah Education Network list server.

The seven new titles

  • House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
  • Identical by Ellen Hopkins
  • Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco
  • Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
  • Perfect by Ellen Hopkins
  • Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout
  • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

The notice cites Utah Code §53G-10-103 and Board Rule R277-628. It says the full list is on the USBE Library Media page under the "Sensitive Materials" tab and "will be updated regularly as any additional titles meet the statewide threshold." That spreadsheet sits behind a Microsoft sign-in, so The Publishing Times checked the count against USBE's earlier notices and against independent tallies.

How the list reached 44

TownLift reported, citing the USBE spreadsheet, that the list stood at 34 titles after A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard and A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin met the threshold on April 27. On August 19, USBE told library staff that three more titles had met the threshold over the summer: Lucky by Alice Sebold, Different Seasons by Stephen King and Push by Sapphire. That made 37. The seven titles in the September 28 notice bring it to 44.

PEN America's list of books banned statewide in Utah now also counts 44 and names the same seven new titles.

The additions deepen a pattern. Ellen Hopkins now has six books on the statewide list: Tilt, Fallout, Tricks, People Kill People, Identical and Perfect. House of Earth and Blood is Sarah J. Maas's seventh, after five A Court of Thorns and Roses books and Empire of Storms. Jesse Andrews joins the list a second time; The Haters was added in April.

How the law works

Under Utah Code §53G-10-103, the statewide rule HB 29 created in 2024, a book must be removed from student access in every Utah public school once at least three school districts, or two districts and five charter schools, determine that it is "objective sensitive material." The state board must tell all districts and charters within 10 school days after a title crosses that line. The board may then put the title on a public meeting agenda within 60 days of that notice and vote to overturn the statewide removal. If it doesn't, the removal stands. The rule covers Utah's public school districts and charter schools.

The lawsuit is still going

The new titles land two weeks after a federal judge let the main legal challenge to the law go forward. In an order filed September 15, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby denied Utah's motion to dismiss the author plaintiffs, a group that includes Ellen Hopkins, Elana K. Arnold, Amy Reed, and the companies that hold Kurt Vonnegut's and Maya Angelou's literary rights. He also let claims for prospective injunctive relief against the individual board members named as defendants proceed, and dismissed the other claims against them. The Salt Lake Tribune reported the ruling on September 17. The order did not decide whether the law is constitutional.

Why it matters for authors

A removal in Utah now reaches every public school library in the state, not just the district that challenged the book. All seven new titles were published between 2008 and 2021, and most are YA or crossover fiction. If you write for teens, the practical questions are how three districts' decisions become a statewide order, and whether the state board ever uses its power to reverse one. The next count will come from USBE's next notice. The Publishing Times will report it from the notice itself.

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