An illustration in the book
(Picture: YouTube)A book in the Biff, Chip and Kipper series for children has been withdrawn from sale and pulped after being hit with complaints.
The book The Blue Eye, published in 2001, follows Biff and her friend Wilf as they are magically transported to a different country with illustrations showing a marketplace where a woman wears a niqab and men wear turbans.
In the original version of the book, Biff said: “Let’s stay together. The people don’t seem very friendly.”
Wilf also describes the place as “scary”.
The publisher Oxford University Press has now removed it from sale and pulped old copies, reported The Guardian.
Among those raising concerns about the illustration was children’s author Moniza Hussain. She said: “Let’s think about the many ppl involved in creating this page.
“The writer, the artist, the publisher. No one stopped to think that maybe it’s not a good idea to teach children Islamophobia”.
The publisher said the book was edited in 2012, to change the reference to unfriendly people to, “It would be easy to lose each other in such a crowded place.”
OUP said the title was taken out of circulation in March after an independent review and it is no longer available to buy.
It said in a statement to Sky News: “OUP destroyed its own remaining stock of the book, although a small number of copies may still remain in the supply chain; some older titles may still be available in libraries, or as second-hand copies.
“At OUP, we regularly review and make changes to our list of titles to ensure they are up-to-date, diverse, inclusive, and reflective of the world we live in, and we take steps to remove any products that are no longer appropriate from our collection.”
The longstanding series, first created in 1986, has been used in schools for years to help children learn to read.
It is read by more than 30 million children globally, according to OUP.
