On a recent trip to a Wilko’s store, I was disappointed to see a range of children’s books both implicitly and explicitly divided by gender. Do we not give children books to engage their imagination, to expand their horizons and to bloom their creativity irrespective of their gender? I was particularly drawn to two colouring books titled, The Boy’s Colouring Book and The Girls’ Colouring Book by publisher Buster Books pictured below. As is clear from the books covers, the books perpetuate stereotypical ideas of gender. Whilst we don’t fully know what effect the influence of books could have on children’s understanding of gender, the messages that these books send merely reinforce patriarchal ideas of gender, and by perpetuating these ideas we are preventing equal opportunities. They seem to suggest that only males have an interest in space travel, adventure, martial arts, cars and construction, where female interests are limited to fashion, motherhood and all things p