<p>The category of “children’s classics” carries significant cultural and educational authority, yet limited empirical research has examined how this label is materially produced within contemporary publishing systems. This article investigates how children’s classics are constituted and circulated within the Indian English-language book market and examines how these publishing processes shape educational access and representation in Indian schools. In this study, “children’s classics” are defined as books explicitly classified and marketed as “classics” within publisher-branded series for young readers. The corpus comprises 90 titles from five major series currently available in India—Oxford Children’s Classics, Puffin Classics, Pushkin Children’s Classics, Rupa Junior Classics, and Tulika Illustrated Classics drawn from editions published between 2008 and 2025. Using descriptive structural analysis of four variables (public-domain status, translation, adaptation, and author nationality), the study identifies three dominant publishing models: public-domain preservation (characteristic of Oxford, Rupa, and much of Puffin), translation-centred expansion (Pushkin), and indigenous adaptation (Tulika). The findings demonstrate that the children’s classics category is shaped less by intrinsic literary value than by material and institutional conditions such as copyright status, market circulation, and editorial positioning. By foregrounding availability, reproduction, and educational mediation, the article reframes canon formation as a materially organised process operating through systems of access and distribution rather than aesthetic evaluation alone.</p>