Ladybird to drop gender-labelling of books

Penguin Random House’s Ladybird imprint will no longer publish books labelled “for boys” and “for girls”, in response to a campaign by Let Toys Be Toys.

Ladybird has previously published books such as Ladybird Favourite Fairy Tales for Girls and Ladybird Favourite Stories for Boys.

The Let Toys Be Toys campaign launched Let Books Be Books earlier this year to encourage publishers to stop labelling books for a certain gender.

In response to the campaign, a spokesperson for Ladybird has told Let Toys Be Toys: “Following discussions, should any of the titles you mention be reprinted for the trade we will be removing this labelling. At Ladybird we certainly don’t want to be seen to be limiting children in any way. Out of literally hundreds of titles currently in print, we actually only have the six titles you cite with this kind of titling, so I do feel we offer a vast range for children and their parents.

“As Ladybird is part of the Penguin Random House Children’s division, our commitment to avoiding gendered titles in the trade crosses all our imprints. ”

Other publishers who have said they will no longer publish books labelled for boys or girls include Usborne, Parragon, Chad Valley and Dorling Kindersley.

Francesca Dow, m.d. Of Penguin Random House Children’s, added: “We at Penguin Random House Children’s are all about great storytelling and we don’t wish to publish anything that limits a child’s imagination.  Children should be free to use their imaginations to find the best stories for them.”