Caroline Binch: Amazing Grace arrived in my letterbox 26 years ago as a couple of sheets of printed paper. Reading Amazing Grace for the first time, I felt a tingle of excitement. Yes I would love to visualise this terrific character and her world. Here’s one of my original paintings of Grace listening to her Nana tell stories.

Caroline Binch: I paint realistic images from photographs that I take, so the first step was to find the people to play the parts. My aim is always that the illustrations also tell the story by facial expressions and body language, alongside the text. Because of this I felt it was important to find a real life Nana, Ma and daughter.

Caroline Binch: Ibrahim, my Nigerian friend, knew of such a family, whom I subsequently met and arranged to take photos of; my part in the creation of Amazing Grace had begun. This painting shows Grace playing her imaginative games, here she’s Dick Whittington and in the smaller picture, Aladdin polishing his lamp…

Grace was a girl who loved stories and after she had heard them, or sometimes while they were still going on, Grace would act them out. And she always gave herself the most exciting part.

Here’s one of Caroline Binch’s sketches of Grace’s cat, Paw-Paw who loves joining in with Grace’s games.

Grace wove a wicked web as Anansi the spiderman.

Some Grace would persuade Ma and Nana to join in, when they weren’t too busy. Then she was Doctor Grace and their lives were in her hands.

Caroline Binch: What a a joy it was to give a visual interpretation of this lively and determined character as she acted, imagined and danced her way into so many hearts; inspiring children all over the world for so many years.

The day of the school play auditions: they had to choose Peter Pan, Grace knew exactly what to do – and all the words to say.

The play was great success and Grace was an amazing Peter Pan. Last word from Nana: “If Grace put her mind to it – she can do anything she want.”

And now a some of happy 25th birthday messages from a couple of fans. First up Baroness Floella Benjamin OBE: “As soon as I saw Caroline Binch’s superb picture on the cover of Amazing Grace, I knew this was the book all children, especially those diverse backgrounds, had been waiting for. At last a book about the thousands of children who all longed to see themselves reflected in stories.”

Grace has lots of friends in high places here’s LeVar Burton, star of Star Trek, who grew up in the middle of the civil rights movement in the United States. “Amazing Grace is one of my favourite children’s books of all time… in Grace’s struggle for acceptance of who she is, I see myself: a person fiercely determined to obliterate the bonds of lack and limitation that continue to afflict citizens of colour in this world.

Thank you Mary Hoffman and Caroline Binch for giving us Amazing Grace, 25 years ago. She remains one of the most recognisable black children’s books characters, and many little “Graces” can be seen trooping to school on World Book Day. But as Mary Hoffman says: “Picture books still have a long way to go in showing the diversity of our culture and the variety within families.” So more please!

(published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books)

A 25th anniversary of Mary Hoffman’s Amazing Grace, illustrated by Caroline Binch is available to buy from The Guardian bookshop.