It's over 15 years since Babette Cole's Princess Smartypants burst onto the scene, with a fiercely independent princess determined to remain a Ms and to reject all her suitors.

Cole followed this with Prince Cinders, turning the traditional Cinderella story on its head, gender and all. But from toys to clothing to TV shows, we're still bombarded with message that girls are princesses, boys are pirates and that mummies stay home while daddies go to work.

Despite this, some brave children's authors have been busy subverting gender roles and ensuring not all the messages our kids come across in books buy into these stereotypes. We look at 10 of the best across all age groups.

What other gender bashing books would you recommend?

More on Parentdish:

Please let's top the tacky stereotypes for children

Why should it be pink for girls and blue for boys

10 gender neutral children's books

  • <p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mans-Work-All-Annie-Kubler/dp/0859535878/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1343903788&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank">Man&rsquo;s Work (All in a day),</a> by Annie Kubler, Child&rsquo;s Play International. &nbsp;</p> <p> This picture book for very young children shows &nbsp;a dad and his toddler doing chores around the house, including washing up, hoovering and making the bed, though not, as one reader pointed out to me, cleaning the loo. There are no words so you can make up your own story to accompany the pictures, which means it&rsquo;s up to you whether these chores are one-offs or everyday occurrences.</p>
  • <p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boys-Dont-Cry-Malorie-Blackman/dp/0552548626/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1343904035&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">Boys Don&rsquo;t Cry</a> by Malorie Blackman, Corgi Children&rsquo;s.</p> <p> We read lots about teenage mothers but this book is about a teenage father, Dante, who opens the door expecting his A Level results and instead is handed a baby by a girl he had a one night stand with a year and half ago. This baby is yours, she tells him, and leaves him to look after his daughter for a few hours, never to return. This isn&rsquo;t the life 17-year-old Dante had planned for himself, and as readers we are thrown into the deep end just as he is, as teenage dads are few and far between in literature.</p>
  • <p> </p> <p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Red-Lynn-Roberts/dp/1843651831/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1344271814&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">Little Red</a>&nbsp;by Lynn Roberts and David Roberts, Pavilion.</p> <p> The original Little Red Riding Hood spares us no gore with a terrifying wolf, a forest with a deep sense of menace and a woodcutter&rsquo;s axe. This version has changed the protagonist to a boy and got rid of the grim stuff (and the Grimm stuff) so the wolf is given a chance to negotiate. It&rsquo;s a fairy tale, but not as we know it.</p>
  • <p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Maisy-Lift---Flap-Classic/dp/0763646733/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1344271846&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">Maisy Mouse</a>&nbsp;by Lucy Cousins, Walker.</p> <p> Maisy, a mouse who lives in a yellow house with a red roof and has adventures with her friends Panda, Tallulah, Cyril, Eddie and Charlie, is worth featuring here because, as one father of a toddler put it to me, &ldquo;she aint no Angelina Ballerina.&rdquo; That is, she does everything you would expect a toddler to do, with no mention of whether she is a boy mouse or a girl mouse, and absolutely no That is, she does everything you would expect a toddler to do, with no mention of whether she is a boy mouse or a girl mouse, and absolutely no pink in sight. The only clue to her gender is the name, Maisy.</p>
  • <p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/His-Dark-Materials-Trilogy-Northern/dp/1407109421/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1343903905&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">His Dark Materials Trilogy</a> by Philip Pullman, Scholastic.</p> <p> This part fantasy series, part retelling of John Milton&rsquo;s Paradise Lost, brings a while host of adult themes to the world of young adult fiction, from fights between good and evil to the nature of our universe and the existence, or not, of God, through the adventures of Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry in parallel words very similar to our own, with some key differences. Good and evil does not split across gender and both male and female characters are brave and courageous making Lyra, and Will, great characters for all readers to identify with.</p>
  • <p> </p> <p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Paper-Princess-Munsch-Kids/dp/0920236162/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1344271744&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Paper Bag Princess</a>&nbsp;by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko, Annick Press.</p> <p> Princess Elizabeth is in love with Prince Ronald, so much so that when he is kidnapped by a dragon who destroys her kingdom (queendom?) and her wardrobe, leaving her nothing to wear but a a paper bag, she works out a cunning plan to rescue him, only to be told by Ronald that she doesn&rsquo;t look princessy enough. Does she go home and return in a sequined ballgown? You can bet your life she doesn&rsquo;t, leaving Ronald to it as she heads off by herself to a life without the loser prince.</p>
  • <p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pirate-Girl-Cornelia-Funke/dp/1904442935/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1343904301&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">Pirate Girl</a> by Cornelia Funke, Kerstin Meyer and Chantal Wright, Chicken House.</p> <p> Hooray, I mean a ha me hearties - a book about pirates where the pirate is a girl. And a clever, terrifying girl at that. Molly is kidnapped on the high seas by the crew of the Horrible Haddock, but by the end Captain Firebeard lives to regret the moment he ever met Molly, and her even more terrifying mum.</p>
  • <p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turbulent-Term-Tyke-Tiler/dp/0571230946/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1343903858&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler</a> by Gene Kemp, Faber &amp; Faber.</p> <p> Tyke Tyler, a pupil at Cricklepit Combined School, is always getting into trouble, though the reasons for this trouble are usually because Tyke is trying to help, such as the cunning plan to help friend Danny cheat in an exam so he doesn&rsquo;t have to go to a special school. Tyke&rsquo;s naughtiness make most readers assume our protagonist is a boy, but we find out near the end that Tyke is in fact a nickname for Theodora, and daring exploits are done by girls too.</p>
  • <p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zog-Julia-Donaldson/dp/1407115596/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1343904193&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">Zog</a> by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, , Alison Green Books.</p> <p> Another book where the princess subverts stereotypes. When Zog the dragon gets into scrapes at dragon school a mysterious girl helps him out, patching up his wounds as best she can. It turns out this girl is no ordinary girl, but a princess, whose ambition in life is to be a doctor. She knows what she wants in life, and is determined not to follow the trajectory of most fictional princesses: &ldquo;&quot;I won't go back to being a princess and prancing round the palace in a silly frilly dress.&rdquo;</p>
  • <p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tango-Makes-Three-Justin-Richardson/dp/1847381480/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1343904257&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank">And Tango Makes Three</a> by Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell and Henry Cole, Simon &amp; Schuster).</p> <p> Based on a true story at New York&rsquo;s Central Park Zoo, Roy and Silo were two penguins who were spotted behaving the way male and female penguins behave to each other, leading zookeepers to deduce they were gay. When they tried to hatch a rock, they were given an egg from a penguin couple that had two and were only able to look after one. This egg hatched into a baby penguin the zoo called Tango. The book tells the story of the penguin family with two daddies alongside beautiful illustrations and is a great book to help teach children about the different types of family there are.</p>