(FORTUNE Small Business) – Reading to your kids is always rewarding. First the cuddles, later the stars on the report card. But the discerning grownup sitting in the rocking chair can also revel in some terrific artwork.

Many of the century's best children's illustrators have done both fine art and book illustrations. N.C. Wyeth did. Sculptor Chris Van Allsburg has created some of today's most popular books, like The Polar Express. You'll be seeing the work of such artists as William Joyce on the cover of The New Yorker and on film: He is negotiating to make a movie based on his irresistible Dinosaur Bob. And if you caught the Oasis music video nominated for a Grammy, you were looking at the work of fine artist and children's book illustrator Christian Clayton.

Recent gallery and auction prices are further proof that the books you read (and reread) each night are often works of art themselves: a Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans goes for $40,000; one by Arthur Rackham, the 19th-century father of the picture book, can fetch $67,000; and a Beatrix Potter original commands as much as $300,000.

To see (or invest in) some of the best contemporary work, visit Storyopolis, a Los Angeles bookstore and gallery with the work of some 80 artists, funded by the ubiquitous investor Paul Allen, whose parents were librarians. Find an original collage by Eric Carle for $10,000 to $12,000; a Joyce, $16,000; and a limited lithograph by Dr. Seuss, $10,000 to $12,000.