The Perry County District Library, located in New Lexington, has a designated children’s room, just like many libraries. What makes it different than other libraries across the state is its longstanding connection with local children’s book author Michael J. Rosen. He can often be found there, alongside copies of his books, leading events or talking with other community residents.
A Columbus native, Rosen attended Ohio State University to study zoology. But it wasn’t zoology that became his future career; he eventually attended Columbia University and obtained a master’s degree in poetry.
“He always supports the library and the schools”
Now, Rosen is an author writing children’s books, poetry, novels, and also creates art including ceramics and paintings. However, he still manages to combine art and nature, his two passions, into his primary work.
“I have an animal nature and that I’m part of an ecosystem, a world, a niche…is much larger than just my needs to be tended,” Rosen says. “I live in an integrated ecosystem and so 90% of my work is inspired by the creatures that share my realm here.”
For the past 22 years, he has lived on 100 forested acres in Perry County. He describes seeing birds at his bird feeder and deer walking across the meadow.
These images inspire some of the content in his children’s books, including “In the Quiet Noisy Woods” and “Our Farm: Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Family’s Farm.”
“That’s where I followed one of my neighbors, five kids, two parents, cats, dogs, a herd of cattle, and I photographed them and did an oral history with all the kids to create a book,” Rosen says. “[It was] so that people who aren’t rural could see how rural kids really live…and for rural kids to find themselves acknowledged, recognized and honored.”
The push for increased children’s literacy by Rosen and the library are trying to reach rural children like those in Southeast Ohio specifically.
“Inspired by that, I did another seven books to benefit animal welfare agencies and rescues…doing these anthologies brought me whole new communities of acquaintances and friends.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the most recent available data from 2017 indicates that 22% of Perry County residents possess literacy skills at or below Level 1. At this level, individuals are generally limited to reading brief, familiar texts using basic vocabulary.
Melissa Marolt, the library director, leads a host of literacy initiatives designed to boost reading skills for children in the area.
These include a program called “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” and a bookmobile that visits preschools directly. According to Marolt, these early outreach efforts operate to “start that early relationship with the families and those kiddos and let them know the library is here for them through all the ages of life, not just for littles, but we grow with them.”
Rosen and the Perry County Library’s team have engaged in many events together over the years, including school visits, haiku with students and a National Poetry Month event in April.
“When we’ve worked with him on projects, it’s been as an author, but also as a poet and an artist,” Marolt says. “…It’s just an amazing array of opportunities to work with him and he is absolutely committed and invested in Perry County kids and making sure that if we ever need anything or want to do some kind of event, he always supports the library and the schools.”
This relationship between Rosen and the library is a long-standing one, with Marolt’s earliest memory of Rosen being of a book talk in Somerset a “long time ago,” according to Marolt.
Since then, they’ve kept in contact over the years and even have displayed his art in the library’s showcase.
“If there’s been an opportunity to work together, we’ve done so,” Marolt says. “He is so willing to bring his works and his craft to the library as a support of programs and being here for the kids.”
According to Rosen, the things that feel most gratifying are the times when he feels like he “really connected” with others. Whether it’s meeting with preschool teachers in the local school district or leading an art workshop with a gel plate, his passion for creativity has accompanied him everywhere. His numerous books reflect these perspectives and advocacy as well.
“I did seven books [where] the profits benefited childhood hunger efforts,” Rosen says. “Inspired by that, I did another seven books to benefit animal welfare agencies and rescues…doing these anthologies brought me whole new communities of acquaintances and friends.”
Marolt would probably consider herself one of these acquaintances.
“He’s just so joyful all the time,” Marolt says. “Every time you talk to him, he is so full of energy and wonderful ideas and inspiration…he inspires others in such a positive, phenomenal way with his art and his books and poetry and just his cheerful, uplifting way of being.”