Jodi Picoult Says 'Books Are On The Ballot' After Her BookNineteen MinutesWas the Most-Banned Book Last Year

Mar. 15, 2025

Jodi Picoult; ‘Nineteen Minutes’.Photo:Lou Rocco/ABC via Getty; Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Lou Rocco/ABC via Getty; Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Jodi Picoultis voting for books this election season.

The bestselling author teamed up withPEN America, a nonprofit organization championing writers and books, to encourage readers to consider what’s at stake for books on election day.

In anInstagram Reelshared on Oct. 28, Picoult, 58, says that her 2008 novel,Nineteen Minuteswas the mostbanned bookduring the 2023-2024 school year, in 98 school districts across the country. The book is about a school shooting, which Picoult notes is “something that our kids, unfortunately, do not need a book to learn about.”

“In fact, hundreds of students have told meNineteen Minutesstopped them from committing a school shooting or showed them they were not alone in feeling isolated,” she continues. “The book did not harm them. It gave them tools to deal with an increasingly divided and different world.”

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“That’s what books do,” Picoult notes, in the video. “They help kids see themselves in a different way. They help kids see the world in a different way.”

The author explains that the reason the book is usually banned is because of a “date rape scene” and because it uses “anatomically correct words for the human body.”

“It is not a gratuitous scene,” Picoult says. “It is not salacious. Yet it has been challenged as porn.”

Jodi Picoult in 2023.Lou Rocco/ABC via Getty

Lou Rocco/ABC via Getty

‘Nineteen Minutes’.Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Atria/Emily Bestler Books

“Josie Cormier, the daughter of the judge sitting on the case, should be the state’s best witness, but she can’t remember what happened before her very own eyes — or can she?”

“As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show — destroying the closest of friendships and families,” the summary concludes.

source: people.com