It definitely happens, and there are a lot of really bad children's books whose primary purpose is to fit into merchandising empires out there. But the ratio o

It definitely happens, and there are a lot of really bad children's books whose primary purpose is to fit into merchandising empires out there. But the ratio of quality work to crap is much higher in children's books than in other media. Especially if you stick to children's books that aren't attached to toys or other media. Compare, for example, anything Disney, where the books are often just a long series of nonsequiturs with barely any narrative structure, let alone emotional depth, to anything by Philip Stead.