My Rating: 4 stars
It’s a beautiful
day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, won’t you be mine, won’t
you be mine, won’t you be my neighbor?
Just hearing this opening line brings back so many
wonderful memories for me! Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was one of
the shows I used to watch almost religiously back as a child growing up in the
1980s. Even though I moved on to other
shows when I became an adult, Mister
Rogers’ Neighborhood had left such an impression on me that many of the
“lessons” I had learned from the show continue to stay with me even now. I loved so many aspects of the show back
then: the songs, the puppets, the adventures, and of course, the gentle soul
with the soothing voice who brought everything together for us day in and day
out – yes, Fred Rogers was my childhood hero, the father figure I wish I’d
had.
Given the above, it should come as no surprise that when
I found out a few months ago about a new biography being published about Fred
Rogers’s life and his iconic show, I just knew that this was a book I
absolutely had to read. I was
disappointed when I wasn’t able to get my hands on an advance copy prior to
publication, but luckily, my library came through for me and I was finally able
to secure a copy to read (though only after having to wait several weeks on the
“hold” list). Reading this book was
quite an emotional experience for me, as it not only brought back many fond
memories of the show, it also gave me so much insight into the life of Fred Rogers
and the one-of-a-kind person he was. Prior
to reading this biography, I had no idea how much effort had gone into producing
his show and how every aspect of the production – from the dialogue to the
music to the puppetry, even such things as the length of each episode -- was
meticulously thought out. What stood out
for me the most though was how genuinely Mister Rogers cared about children and
how devoted he was to their education and overall well-being. One of the things that made Fred Rogers truly
unique, especially for someone in the world of showbiz, was the fact that “what
you saw was what you got” – meaning that the gentle, kind fatherly figure you
saw on the TV screen, he was the exact same way in real life. As Mister Rogers had said in previous
interviews, he was neither an actor nor an entertainer, he was always just
being himself. It’s interesting that
back then, his view that children should be respected for who they are and
their thoughts and feelings should be respected as well, was actually
considered “radical” thought, with some critics likening it to “coddling”
children to the point of spoiling them, yet later on, as thoughts on child
development evolved and progressed, his viewpoint was actually welcomed,
encouraged and even held up as the “gold” standard for how to treat children.
I will be honest in saying that I find it impossible to
sum up the legacy of Fred Rogers and how much he meant to those of us who grew
up watching his show, in one biography about his life, regardless of how
substantive or thorough that biography is -- which is why, for me, this review
is so hard to write because I know I will never be able to give it the justice
it deserves. In that sense, this book is
a breath of fresh air in that, given the negativity-filled world we live in
today, it is a nostalgic reprieve and a reminder of what it means to be a
genuinely humble, honest, kind person who truly cared about others. As far as “celebrity” biographies go, this
one I would definitely recommend, not because it was particularly well-written
(in fact, the writing was actually the worse part of this book to be honest –
the other reviews that mentioned the repetitiveness of the writing were
actually spot-on). Rather, this book
should be read for its subject matter and, perhaps, as a rare positive boost
given the current world we live in today.
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