Roger Hargreaves has learned that his publishers have knocked back the latest two books in his world famous Mr Men and Little Miss series.
Little Miss Mr Man and Mr Little Miss have been deemed unsuitable for the children's book market.
"It's not Roger's fault, really," said his agent, Mr Jeff Happy (pure coincidence). "He's written so many of these little books, he's starting to lose the plot."
Mr Little Miss centres on the plight of a female to male transsexual in the work place.
"There's a great deal of inequality in the workplace between men and women," said Happy. "This is only exacerbated by gender realignment surgery. Where the gap between women and men has shrunk in recent years, for female to male transsexuals this gap is even wider, and some companies will not even employ them. This book describes all that using a thin yellow character in a beanie hat."
On the other hand, Little Miss Mr Man concentrates on the trials and tribulations of a male cross-dresser in a world that just doesn't understand.
"Mr Tranny, as the character is called," said Happy, "Spends every other page as a figure of eight shaped blue character with clog styled heels and a flowery hat, and the remaining pages thin as a rake without shoes on. The story concentrates on police harassment and the ridicule of his friends. Only Mr Tickle seems to understand."
Despite the hard hitting message wrapped in jelly and ice-cream, the multilevel message in the book preaching tolerance it appears that what the publishers are after is Mr Beige, or Little Miss Conformity."
