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Aside from children books, there's an entire novel industry whose one of the main appeals is the inclusion of illustrations: the light novel industry in Japan.
In the good old days, pulp magazines were a cheap way to consume literature. These magazines usually included many short stories within a single issue, with popular characters (such as Doc Savage and The Spider) having their own magazines.
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Unlike novels, the cover art of pulps actually played a major role in the marketing side. And at some point in time, they also began including illustrations within the magazine depicting elements of the stories.
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While the west pulp industry declined by the 50s, Japanese pulps still sold. Eventually, the magazine format was mostly replaced by the novel format, but the major role of illustrations remained the same. As publishers wanted to drag the attention of anime and manga fans, the art of light novels inherited the characteristic anime/manga aesthetics (big eyes, impossible hair/eye colors, etc.).
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Soon, the light novel industry found its place along other media industries. Anime, manga and live-action adaptations of popular light novels would attract new readers, more readers would demand the creation of more light novels, more light novels would spawn more adaptations, and so on. The light novel industry slowly grew in the following years until the anime adaptation of the Haruhi Suzumiya series skyrocketed the popularity of the medium in an unprecedented way. Many of the most popular franchises of the last years started as light novels.
Nowadays it's hard to imagine a light novel series without a strong emphasis in illustrations, as it has been one of its selling points since its inception.
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