Popularity, representation, an efficient handling of difficult yet necessary themes – what defines a children’s book as successful? Belinda Rasmussen, Sarah Odedina, Vatsala Kaul-Banerjee and Venkatesh M. Swamy discuss with Sayoni Basu common themes, what they think constitutes a successful list, the challenges posed by the pandemic and next steps in children’s book publishing. Belinda Rasmussen is Publisher at Macmillan Children’s Book, Pan Macmillan UK. Sarah Odedina is Editor-at-Large at Pushkin Children’s Books. Vatsala Kaul-Banerjee is Publisher at Hachette India. Venkatesh M. Swamy is the founder of Eureka and Director of Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival. Sayoni Basu is the co-founder of Duckbill and Consulting Editor at Penguin Random House India.