I will not crosspost again, promise!
My little one (the nickname idea is cool, I'll find one) is currently a fan of Erich Kästner, one of the best and criminally underrated German writers. She doesn't understand most of the jokes, since the word plays are from the 1930s, but the book "The 35. of May" is just an impressive example of both imagination (it's absolutely crazy) and foresight (self-driving cars for example): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_35th_of_May;_or,_Conrad%27s_Ride_to_the_South_Seas
If you want to blow imagination to the top - that's a good book.
The little one is 6 years old, so the Hobbit is a little too much for her. I'm thinking about getting into Astrid Lindgren with her next - she already knows Tomte Tummetot and a few smaller works, as well as the Sven Nordqvist books. But I'll look into Roald Dahl, I remember I loved his books, but don't remember my age.
And I agree on the images. The friend I mention has read LOTR many times, and left me his 7-book-copies (the 6 original plus the annex), the most precious (lol) among the many things he left on his move. He hated the movies, and I think the destruction of the images he had created were part of it.