Our favorite Richard Scarry books get modern updates

Richard Scarry has created more than 300 children books in his career, dating back to 1949. He’s been quietly re-writing many of them, to adjust to society’s growing understanding and acceptance of gender roles and cultural relations. In fact, the changes have been there since 1991 and no one has taken much notice. It was Alan Taylor, a senior photo editor at The Atlantic, who noticed the changes in his child’s version of Best Word Book Ever and posted them on his Flikr.

 

Woman can be police, men can be dads

 

Gender-specific career titles were altered

 

Stereotypes of Cowboys and “Indians” were removed

 

The “damsel in distress” image is long gone

 

Women can do heavy lifting, too

It is surprising that it took almost 25 years for someone to notice these changes, especially in such an iconic book. Bravo, Mr. Scarry!