Publishers Weekly report on the Let Books Be Books campaign:
Timed to World Book Day, which the U.K. and Ireland observe more than a month before the rest of the world, the U.K.-based Let Toys Be Toys campaign – which has advocated for stores to stop labeling playthings as “for boys” or “for girls” – has begun a similar initiative called Let Books Be Books, aimed at erasing gender stereotypes from children’s publishing.
By the end of launch day on March 6, an online petition encouraging publishers to “stop labeling books [in a gendered] way and let children decide for themselves what kinds of stories and activity books they find interesting” had garnered more than 1,500 signatures, most from the U.K. but also extending to continental Europe, North America, and beyond. A Twitter hashtag invited users to join the conversation on stereotyping in children’s books; one parent tweeted: “daughter was excluded by classmates today as not dressed as a princess for #WorldBookDay Sad #LetBooksBeBooks.”
