The 1980s were a great time to write a classic Aussie picture book. From Possum Magic and Animalia to Who Sank the Boat? there was a voracious appetite to see Australia represented for kids in a way it hadn’t been before. Like everyone my age, I grew up with these books and I read them to my own children.

Forty years on, these books remain beloved – it’s no wonder they’re leading Guardian Australia’s reader poll of the best picture books of all time. But today the creation of new homegrown classics – which is increasingly important – has become increasingly difficult. The publishing landscape that created and nurtured the success of legacy titles has changed and the prospect of selling five million copies is now itself a thing of storybooks. As Graeme Base said when asked what would happen if you pitched Animalia today: “You’d fail – miserably, I suspect.”

Today’s children’s authors face challenges their predecessors did not: the proliferation of celebrity authors, AI books, diminished shelf time and the vanishing of school librarians. This has made getting new books into small hands a tricky endeavour. A book that takes two years to make may spend two weeks in a bookshop before being filed away on the shelf, facing what publishers call “death by spine”.

Another challenge is the dominance of nostalgic books: classic titles that continue to occupy pole position due largely to the emotional recall of the person buying the book – an adult. Publishers respond by ensuring constant reprints and anniversary editions are in perennial supply.

This can give rise to the notion that older books are what kids are reading today; that they are of a better quality and capture childhood in a way new books don’t. This would be a distortion. The standard of Australian children’s books remains world-class – just ask any teacher librarian (if you can still find one!).

But what contemporary books do that most legacy titles don’t is reflect the world that children currently live in and its values. Think of that page in There’s a Hippopotamus On Our Roof Eating Cake, where mum suffers through her salad diet – it’s out of whack with the self-acceptance we aim to mirror to our children today. Think of The Tiger Who Came to Tea: a single-income household waiting patiently for dad to arrive home from work is just not the reality for the majority of families.

Books that reflect diverse cultures and different family structures allow young readers to see the fullness of their community in fiction. They also feed a child’s natural curiosity and help them develop greater empathy towards others. Stories such as White Sunday, for instance, which welcomes us into the home and culture of a Samoan family; and Come Over to My House, which explores deafness and disability; and Under the Love Umbrella, which represents different family structures, including LGBTQIA+ families.

Legacy titles such as the Rainbow Serpent have been crucial in representing Indigenous culture over the decades, but other examples from that period are thin on the ground. Meanwhile, there are many contemporary First Nations authors – such as Kirli Saunders, Gregg Dreise and Trevor Fourmile – who are generously sharing their culture and stories with young readers today.

Modern children’s fiction also plays a unique role in helping children unpack difficult social and environmental issues and create space for them to safely explore. My own book, Room on Our Rock, is inspired by the ongoing global humanitarian refugee crisis – an issue that can be difficult for young children, yet one that will continue to be part of the world they grow up in. Fiction permits them to build resilience and critical thinking, while allegory allows them to take from the story what they wish.

Writers and illustrators want to help children connect to the world around them and see themselves in these books – but finding reach in a market drawn to nostalgia is an uphill battle.

To create the next generation of life-long readers, we need to foster our local creative industry and encourage new classics anchored in this era. Next time we go into a bookshop, we need to ask: what’s new? What are kids reading today? If we don’t make more room on the shelves next to our legacy titles, we may be left asking: Who Sank The Boat?

• Kate Temple has written more than 40 books for children including the Bin Chicken series. Room On Our Rock, by Kate and Jol Temple, illustrated by Terri Rose Baynton, is in the running for Guardian Australia’s poll to decide the best Australian children’s picture book. The poll is open for voting until Thursday morning, with the winner announced on Friday