Beautiful illustrations _

My daughter loved this as a child.

The flower fairies books. I learnt most of the botany I know from those.

Masquerade by Kit Williams.

Books of fairy tales illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley.

Unless you are looking for illustrations from nature, I always loved the old-fashioned pictures of the children in the Ameliaranne books eg Ameliaranne goes Touring, Ameliaranne, Bridesmaid by Constance Heward.

Quite lowbrow I know, but both my children loved the old Ladybird books from the 50s and 60s when they were children, particularly the ordinary pictures of children doing things with their families. My favourite illustrator was PB Hickling, who was very prolific at that time, and illustrated lots of children’s books.

The Blue Fairy Book published by the Folio Society is beautifully illustrated.

"The Blue Fairy Book
Andrew Lang
Illustrated by Charles van Sandwyk
Introduced by Joan Aiken

A wonderful collection of fairy stories selected by Andrew Lang at the end of the 19th century and fully illustrated by Charles van Sandwyk for this Folio edition."

Ooh this is lovely!
I love illustration.
I especially adore Molly Brett and Margaret Tempest (the latter illustrated the books of Alison Uttley).
Much more dark and 'adult', but no less beautiful - Walter Crane.
His artwork is sublime.
Casdon yes, the Ladybird illustrators were very clever. I particularly like how they depicted everyday, seemingly boring objects.

I love the illustrations in the Beatrix Potter books. Also books by Shirley Hughes, especially the Alfie and Annie Rose books.

My daughters loved Alfie & Annie Rose stories. Shirley Hughes’ depiction of children is cherubic. I still have the Christmas book and can’t let it go to the charity shop.

What age is your GD Kaimoana ?

Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters.

They are just so beautiful

And Mark Haddon’s Sea of Tranquility

Loved the Shirley Hughes books, illustrations so detailed.

Brian Wildsmith’s books are beautiful.

Do you prefer ‘old fashioned’ illustrations?

There are many lovely modern illustrators like Oliver Jeffers, Francesca Sanna, Emily Gravett, Helen Oxenbury, Jackie Morris (have a look at the list of Kate Greenaway Medal winners carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/archive/kate-greenaway-medal-winners/

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202103/medium-433286-deep.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202103/medium-268188-atlantis.jpg

'Down in the Marvellous Deep' - sea poems compiled and illustrated by Sophie Windham with gorgeous themed borders on the pages.

Anything by Colin Thompson, but especially 'Looking for Atlantis.' It creates a magical world children and adults will want to explore many times.

Forgot - Aaron Becker “The Journey” (trilogy) - wonderful

What a lovely lot of suggestions - many, many thanks.

Some of these I've already ordered - Mufaro's Beautiful Daughter is on its way Peaseblossom.

Yes, I love the old fashioned illustrations but there are some modern illustrators I love too.

My grand-daughter is 3 months old but already loving Mummy reading to her and she definitely looks at the illustrations.

Geekesse I too learned about botany from the Flower Fairy books and still have mine, which will be passed on to Mila when I kick the bucket

Little Grey Mouse has just gone into the basket from a seller in UK who offers free postage, even to NZ. Brilliant.

Meanwhile, I'm going to work through every one of your suggestions as some of these books are now only available in 2nd hand bookshops. That can be fairly pricey when you add postage from wherever they are, to New Zealand.

I can't thank you enough

And before I go - Mila has a brother almost 12, what do your grandsons like?
I've just ordered Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome, remember that? I think it will amuse him.

Maybe start a new thread for books for your GS Kaimoana ?

People may not return to this one after posting their suggestions.

You may like to try “The Twits” or “James and the Giant Peach” by Ronald Dahl with illustrations by Quentin Blake. The recommended reading age is about right years but you would be a better judge knowing his reading level.

Roald Dahl, blooming spellchecker...

Jim Kay has done some beautiful illustrations for the first three Harry Potter. More are on the way, though our Potter-obsessed DGS will be in his teens before the whole series is available.

Sorry - couldn’t resist posting the link to this video and I’m sure it would be well illustrated.

It’s bound to raise a giggle:-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yskf94MYM1I

And before I go - Mila has a brother almost 12, what do your grandsons like?
The Percy Jackson books but I'm not sure if they have lovely illustrations.

I think it depends what you like in illustration. I love watercolour and so The Lost Spells, with Jackie Morris’s wonderful illustrations of animals, birds and insects, and attendant verses is one of my favourite “dip in and out” books, along with “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”. A particular interest of mine is the work of war artists, past and present (not everyone’s cup of tea, I know) and I love “Sketches from Afghanistan” by Matthew Cook. His palette is sparing and his loose sketches of the day to day life of both the military and local folk have an intimacy, and are wonderfully lit.

Sorry, I hadn’t read the OP properly and note that these recommendations are for your grandchildren. The first two, then, but maybe not Matthew Cook!

Isabella Tree’s ‘When we went wild’. I mentioned this on another thread, the illustrations are gorgeous.

My dgs is well beyond his age in reading and has just read and enjoyed 'Hatchet'. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatchet_(novel)

He still enjoys Horrible Histories and Goosebumps though
His books don't need to be illustrated

As the whole idea is for me to leave the books as a legacy, so to speak, I'm happy for recommendation right up to and including young adult books.
I have the brilliant, 'Tomorrow' series by John Marsden, for instance, which I think he'll enjoy.

Blossoming I've just ordered 'When we went Wild', thankyou.
I've heard The Archers talking about re-wilding a marvellous idea and too long in coming.