Shanghai Children's Book Fair Opens Its 13th Edition With Over 500 Exhibitors

The 13th Shanghai International Children's Book Fair runs from 13 to 15 November 2026 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center, and organisers say more than 500 exhibitors from 37 countries and regions are taking part.

For readers new to book fairs, these events are where publishers meet. Most of the business is in rights: the permission to publish, translate or adapt a book in another territory. A publisher in one country might sell a picture book's translation rights to a publisher in another, and the deal is often agreed on the fair floor or in meeting rooms nearby. The Shanghai fair is co-organised by the Bologna Children's Book Fair, the long-running Italian event that is one of the best-known gatherings for children's publishing.

The organisers also say the fair includes 152 international exhibitors, and that it will host more than 300 professional events and reading promotion activities across the three days. Professional events are the talks, workshops and networking sessions that bring editors, agents and illustrators together. Reading promotion activities are aimed at families and young readers, and they are a reminder that a children's book fair has a public side as well as a trade one. Publishing Perspectives reported these figures as the fair opened.

Italy stands out in the lineup. The Italian Trade Agency is leading a delegation of 16 publishers to Shanghai, which the organisers describe as the largest Italian participation in the fair's history. A trade agency is a government body that helps national businesses reach overseas buyers, so the delegation is a state-backed push as well as a group of individual companies.

What this means for the people involved is fairly direct. Publishers get a chance to pitch titles to buyers they might not otherwise reach in a single trip. Authors and illustrators, many of whom attend in person, can find new markets for their work. For young readers, the fair's programme of activities is the part they are most likely to see, even if the deals happening around it stay behind closed doors.

Whether any given partnership or sale comes out of these three days is something only the exhibitors will know, and most of that news arrives weeks or months later. For now, the fair has opened with a full programme, a wide spread of countries and a clear Italian presence.