The Russian edition of the children’s book “The Wild Robot” distorted passages about fish being able to change sex...

The Russian edition of the children’s book “The Wild Robot” distorted passages about fish being able to change sex. This was done “in accordance with Russian law”

In the Russian edition of Peter Brown’s children’s book “The Wild Robot Protects” (the third book in the series), the text of a chapter discussing fish that can change sex was distorted, Verstka noted.

A warning that Chapter 27 was “adapted in accordance with Russian law” appears in a note in the book. In the story, the main character—a robot named Roz—enters an underwater world whose inhabitants begin discussing Roz’s sex. Roz replies that robots do not have a sex, but that she was programmed to feel female.

Roz is then introduced to a fish character named Gloop, whom his friends also “consider rather unusual.” One of the characters explains that Gloop is both male and female. At this point, the wording differs between the Russian edition and the original.

In the original, Gloop clarifies that he was actually “born a female, and then changed to a male”:

“I was born a female, and then I changed to a male”.

In the Russian edition, the sentence is phrased in abstract terms:

“I belong to the wrasse family. Wrasses are born female and can later become male.”

In another passage, Roz consults the computer in her head and learns that “many other types of fish can change back and forth between male and female”:

“Many other types of fish can change back and forth between male and female”.

In the Russian edition, the same statement is vague and ambiguous:

“Many species of fish can be both female and male.”

💜The book “The Wild Robot Protects” was published by Mann, Ivanov and Ferber in 2025 with an age rating of 6+. The warning about the “adaptation of Chapter 27” appears in both the electronic and print editions of the book.

💜Earlier, Viktor Kovylin, editor-in-chief of the popular science magazine Batrachospermum, said that a publishing house had demanded changes to an upcoming book about animal sexual behavior because of suspicions of “LGBT propaganda.”

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