The Oriel Square team had a brilliant time at The London Book Fair 2026 (LBF) on Wednesday 11th March 2026. I went hoping to be completely immersed in what’s new and great in children’s publishing, and that’s exactly what happened. Here are some of the trends I spotted. 

Graphic novels 

Graphic novels were everywhere! It’s really great to see traction around the effectiveness of graphic novels  for engaging reluctant readers. I wonder if we’ll be seeing more of this trend in educational publishing. It’s an excellent way to explain things as well as to tell stories. 

For more on this, take a look at the one-page bite-sized information chunks in Mike Barfield and Jess Bradley’s A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu, and You. This isn’t a new title but was very prominent on the Michael O’Mara stand at LBF. Jess Bradley’s cartoony style works really well with scientific content.

Nostalgia

It seems the desire for ‘cosiness’ is crossing over from adult’s to children’s books – a theme that often goes hand in hand with an historical setting. I’ve commissioned similar themes for reading schemes before. I find that the challenge is in how to convey a past-times setting without too much difficult vocabulary, or relying on historical contextual knowledge that may not be present. That said, the number of simplified classics available today shows that it can be done, and that there’s an appetite for it.

AI

This felt like the year that AI crossed over into being completely impossible to ignore. I spotted the brilliant Don’t Steal This Book campaign, highlighting the use of copyrighted content to train AI models. On the other side, I spotted several technology providers showcasing products supporting  the use of AI in publishing workflows. 

I remain hopeful that it’s possible to use AI ethically in the publishing process, in a way that doesn’t harm authors, illustrators and creators. I’ll be following the Don’t Steal This Book campaign with interest.

My book of the fair

My book of the fair was Sweet Cherry’s My Super Fun Niqabi Mum. If you’ve not seen it, there’s a great review here on the Islamic School Librarian blog. I’m  really pleased to see this get so much attention, as it’s rare to see representations of niqab in children’s books. I’ll be passing on the recommendation to our school library.

Get in touch at contactus@orielsquare.co.uk to learn more about how Oriel Square can help your reading products have an impact in the classroom and beyond.