Lovely kids' books: pity about the sexism part 1

Do you notice how kids' books are still propagating the same old gender stereotypes? 

I'm picking on Julia Donaldson and Axel Schaeffer, purely because their books are lovely and imaginative. They're great, but they are sexist! Take a look at these three:

Rabbit's Nap:

Rabbit (female) tries to sleep while various busy male animals, Builder Bear, fox chopping wood and tortoise on a bike, mice musicians, all keep her awake. They are mostly wearing tweeds. Finally, they sing her to sleep. Whilst the book is very charming, it's clear that the female role is reclining, static, the passive recipient of annoyance, and the male roles are all active: chopping, building, cycling, playing music.

The Smartest Giant in Town:

George the giant gets a new suit of clothes but gives each item away one by one to animals in distress. At the end they thank him. It's beautifully illustrated and takes place in a semi fairytale, semi-real landscape. However, why do all the characters have to be busy fulfilling stereotypical gender roles? Women are shown pushing prams, hanging up washing, shop assistant helping male shop manager. Men are shown wheeling wheelbarrows and reading the newspaper. All the animal characters George helps are male except for 'mother mouse' who is only defined through being a mother and having lots of children. 

The Snail and the Whale:

Snail is female, whale is male. The whale plucks the snail away from her static existence and shows her the world, opening her eyes to its wonders. He is the mentor, teacher, enabler, and is physically massive and powerful. She is small and the pupil taking it all in. She does, however, save the whale through her intelligence. 

Now I'm not advocating some sterile universe of kids' books where everything is PC, but it would be so easy and liberating to to project the idea that all kinds of people do all kinds of things in the illustrations and stories.  The Shirley Hughes books, though dating from the 1970s and 80s are streets ahead. You can be folksy and imaginative without being sexist, you don't have to copy tired old stereotypes into beautiful imagined worlds. So come on, let's see Mother Mouse with a hammer.