Book Review: Hello, Neighbor: The Kind and Caring World of Mister Rogers by Matthew Cordell

Hello, Neighbor: The Kind and Caring World of Mister Rogers
by Matthew Cordell (j Biography Rogers)

This is the story of Fred Rogers, the man who became known to millions of children as Mister Rogers, the genial host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on PBS for 900 episodes, until the series wrapped production in 2001. This book is partially a biography of Rogers, in fairly simplistic “picture book” form, and partially a look at the “making of” and “behind-the-scenes” of his legendary television series.

 

Author Cordell was the 2018 Caldecott Medalist for his book Wolf in the Snow, and he brings his traditional art style to this story — capturing the essence of Fred Rogers (and other recognizable faces), without being slavish to realistic details. However, it is actually in the artistic details that some hidden gems are found, which you’ll find listed in a visual glossary at the end of the book.

 

Having grown up in the late 1960s and early 1970s — I was 5 when Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiered nationally in 1968 — I fondly remember the lessons of kindness, acceptance and appreciation taught in those episodes. I know that episodes of the series are available for viewing online. I only hope that the positive messages and Rogers’ gentle approach to child psychology can still find an audience with kids today, who are more accustomed to a higher-energy style of television programming.

 

(If you enjoy this, obviously, I recommend tracking down Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood episodes in any format you can find them, or the modern successor, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Two films were released just a few years ago which I highly recommend — the touching and emotional documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor (2017) and the feature film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2018), in which Tom Hanks did a fine job portraying Rogers.)

 

( official Fred Rogers Institute web site ) | ( official Matthew Cordell web site )

 

See Scott C.’s review of The World According to Mister Rogers in the June 2017 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!
See Scott C’s review of the documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? in the November 2018 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!
See Scott C’s review of the movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood in the April 2020 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!
See Scott C’s review of Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in the May 2020 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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