Children's storybooks are big business. Sun Ye finds out that there is no time-tested recipe for success but generally story lines that are imaginative, adventurous and with good values fascinate the young curious minds.

Xu Dexia is not known for writing mega-hit fairy tales but children still crowd around her for autographs whenever they meet her.

The 60-year-old, sporting a head of tight grandmotherly curls, is editor-in-chief of Children's Literature, a magazine with a monthly circulation of more than one million.