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Elkhorn Area School District

339 titles banned · Wisconsin

Banned Books

101 Ways to Dance 101 Ways to Dance 33 Snowfish 33 Snowfish 99 Days 99 Days A Child Called "It" A Child Called "It" A Clash of Kings A Clash of Kings A Court of Frost and Starlight A Court of Frost and Starlight A Court of Mist and Fury A Court of Mist and Fury A Court of Silver Flames A Court of Silver Flames A Court of Thorns and Roses A Court of Thorns and Roses A Court of Wings and Ruin A Court of Wings and Ruin A Curse So Dark and Lonely A Curse So Dark and Lonely A Day No Pigs Would Die A Day No Pigs Would Die A Girl Named Zippy A Girl Named Zippy A Great and Terrible Beauty A Great and Terrible Beauty A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns A Semi-definitive List of Worst Nightmares A Semi-definitive List of Worst Nightmares Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter After After All Boys Aren't Blue All Boys Aren't Blue All the Birds in the Sky All the Birds in the Sky All the Bright Places All the Bright Places All the Light We Cannot See All the Light We Cannot See Allegedly Allegedly Almost Perfect Almost Perfect Alt Ed Alt Ed An Abundance of Katherines An Abundance of Katherines Anna and the Swallow Man Anna and the Swallow Man Ask the Passengers Ask the Passengers Beetle and the Hollowbones Beetle and the Hollowbones Before I Fall Before I Fall Beloved Beloved Blankets Blankets Boy Toy Boy Toy Brave New World Brave New World Burned Burned Choke Choke Clockwork Princess Clockwork Princess Code Name Verity Code Name Verity Cold Sassy Tree Cold Sassy Tree Concrete Rose Concrete Rose Crank Crank Crown of Midnight Crown of Midnight Cut Cut Dark Triumph Dark Triumph Daughter of the forest Daughter of the forest Dime Dime Doll bones Doll bones Drama: a Graphic Novel Drama: a Graphic Novel

About Elkhorn Area School District

Elkhorn Area School District serves the city of Elkhorn and the surrounding communities in Walworth County, southeastern Wisconsin, near the Illinois border. The county seat of Walworth County, Elkhorn is a small city of roughly 10,000 residents situated about 50 miles southwest of Milwaukee and 60 miles north of Chicago. The district enrolls approximately 3,000 students across several elementary schools, a middle school, and Elkhorn Area High School, which opened a new facility in 2005.

Walworth County is known for its chain of lakes—Geneva Lake, Delavan Lake, and others—that make it a popular summer recreation area for Chicago-area residents. The broader county includes Lake Geneva, the prominent resort town. Elkhorn itself is more of a working agricultural and light-industrial community. Politically, Walworth County leans significantly conservative, making it one of the redder counties in a state that is often closely divided at the statewide level.

Books in Schools

Elkhorn Area School District drew national attention in 2021 and 2022, when a parent group organized to challenge dozens of books in the district’s school libraries. The group submitted formal complaints about titles covering LGBTQ+ themes, race, sexuality, and identity in young adult and children’s literature—making it one of the earliest mid-sized districts outside the South to become a focal point in the accelerating national debate over school library books.

The school board responded by removing or restricting a significant number of challenged titles, making Elkhorn one of the more prominent cases in Wisconsin and one of the leading districts nationally in documented book restrictions at the time. The case attracted coverage from Milwaukee-area media and was cited in national reporting about the organized nature of the book challenge movement, which often relied on coordinated lists of titles distributed to parent groups across districts. Wisconsin does not have a statewide book-review law like Florida’s HB 1467, so Elkhorn’s removals were driven primarily by local school board decisions in response to community pressure.

This district's book removals have drawn news coverage — see reporting from Wisconsin Public Radio for more.