More than 30,000 new children's books from 17 countries and regions were showcased at the ninth China Shanghai International Children's Book Fair (CCBF).

The event was held at the West Bund Art Center by the Huangpu River from Friday to Sunday.

Among the exhibits, popular science books for children accounted for the highest proportion among newly published children's books, showing the strongest growth trend.

Children's literature and children's picture books became the second and third most popular in the first three quarters of 2022, following children's science books that accounted for 26 percent of the new books.

"The feature of this picture book from France is that it creates a path for children to observe the world from their own perspective. There are about 200 kinds of books and they vary in their approaches of presentation. What's more, they are targeted at different age groups with meticulous attention paid to the differentiation among readers," said Fei Jia, a senior children's book editor at Juvenile and Children's Publishing House.

At this year's book fair, the "Book and Seed" special exhibition area features hundreds of children's popular science books in multiple languages, including those illustrating the entire process of a grain of rice from plant to plate, and picture-based encyclopedia of plants.

"I think children would find the documentary books or books on history and geography interesting," said a visitor.

"It's the best for picture books today to enable the children to hear and see the stories, especially to let them feel situated in some kind of scenarios," said another visitor.