The third China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF) kicked off Friday in wintry conditions using the sports theme “Joining the World for the Future.” Several new exhibitors made their presence felt this year with big pavilions (such as those by the Nordic countries and Germany) while others take over bigger booths to accommodate their staff and display such as the Quarto Group and Walker Books. Booths of Pearson China, McGraw-Hill and Oxford University Press were crowded as were those of Atlantyca, DeAgostini, Clavis and Cortez Editora.

It is not just the established houses that are exhibiting at the three-day event, which ends on November 15. Take seven-month-old Old Barn Books from West Sussex, U.K., as an example of a startup at the show. It has published eight titles so far, and cofounder and publisher Ruth Huddleston “was quite trepidatious prior to arriving in China for the first time and participating at CCBF -- thinking that perhaps we are too small for the event -- but the first day has been really good despite our limited display.” Visual books with English-looking artworks seem to go well with the audience, observes Huddleston (previously with Templar Publishing), adding that “many visitors are looking for series whereas our brand-new list is mostly single titles.” Still, Kate Prendergast’s Dog on A Train and its upcoming title, Dog on a Digger, have been popular with booth visitors. The same with David Ellwand’s Racing Bears and Alison Jay’s Bee & Me.

Another first-timer (both to China and CCBF) is Pavilion Book’s managing director David Graham, who was on the last leg of a two-week visit to Japan, South Korea and China. “This is an interesting market, and to us, a key strategic area for growth and development. So this is not just a sales trip but also a fact-finding mission.” For Graham, “the Chinese market is still very much into educational values and nonfiction titles. Fact wins over fluff, I would say, and the market also wants series that can be built on. But I am here to promote titles such as Rosie Wellesley’s The Very Helpful Hedgehog and Michael Foreman’s War Game.” Adult coloring books, such as those by Millie Marotta, which have five million copies in print and available in 35 languages, are not as popular because “the fad for coloring books in China has come and gone, having peaked during the summer months.”

For rights sales manager Anna Thylin of Capstone, China’s two-child policy is a hot topic in meetings with local editors and publishers. “There are a lot of enquiries for picture books on having a sibling in the family. They are also asking for titles that deal with emotions, behaviors, manners, bullying, sharing and friendship. They like Katy Hudson’s Too Many Carrots and Daniel Dunn’s I Can Be A Friend very much,” added Thylin, pointing out that she does not bring No More Bullies series by Melissa Higgins and Amanda Doering to CCBF because there are already too many offers received at the recent Frankfurt fair. “It is not a struggle for us to sell to China, and whatever we have that are suitable for China have been sold. This is in fact our busiest territory.” Export sales manager Michael Heitzman, on the other hand, has been busy bringing original titles direct to China, and selling interactive e-book collection and PebbleGo databases to schools. “More schools are buying English titles and digital programs, and the volume ordered has increased significantly in recent months,” says Heitzman.

That two-child policy was also at the heart of PW’s conversation with Li Xueqian, president of CBBY (Chinese Board on Books for Young People) as well as president of China Children’s Press and Publication Group (CCPPG), the biggest publishing group in the country. “The current market of 370 million children aged 18 and below -- which is huge -- is set to expand even more with the two-child policy. This is also a diverse market with parents and kids in the urban and rural areas looking for different types of books. That translates into ample opportunities for overseas publishers to work with Chinese presses.”

For Li, having China as the market focus at the 2015 BookExpo America has helped in forging closer relationships between American and Chinese publishers. “I visited major publishers such as Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, where we exchanged ideas and perspectives. We agree that having great content for children is the most important, and that our biggest challenge comes from the electronic media. Summing up, there are more similarities in our thinking and understanding of the market than differences. So if German and French publishers have identified China as their #1 target market for children’s books, what are American publishers waiting for? Let’s work closer and grow together. Let’s leverage and invest on the growing Chinese children’s book market right now.”