Great Lakes Mercantile in downtown Oxford was proud to welcome children’s book illustrator Michael Glenn Monroe for a special two-hour appearance Saturday morning.
The Brighton resident autographed copies of the many books he’s illustrated over the last eight years, while painting a robin (Michigan’s state bird) for store’s owners Ron and Dora Rolando, of Leonard.
Monroe’s illustrations can be found in Foursome the Spider, L is for Last Frontier, S is for Sunshine: A Florida ABC Book, The Michigan Counting Book, Buzzy the Bumblebee, A Wish to be a Christmas Tree, Penny: The Forgotten Coin and The Christmas Humbugs.
His first book, M is for Mitten: A Michigan Alphabet, has been the Number One selling educational book in Michigan for the last four years. More than 140,000 copies have been sold.
The latest book Monroe illustrated, A is for Ark: Noah’s Journey, has the distinction of being the ‘only ABC book about Noah’s Ark on the market.?
Prior to illustrating children’s books, Monroe was a fulltime wildlife artist whose work graced the covers of magazines and was used on special stamps.
Monroe said he prefers illustrating children’s books to wildlife art because with the latter ‘everything has to be anatomically correct.?
‘It has to be perfect,? he said.
Illustrating children’s books is a ‘lot less inhibiting? and a ‘lot more free and fun.?
‘You can just let your imagination fly.?
Monroe makes more than 140 appearances a year at schools, teaching kids about wildlife, conservation and how to draw nature.