The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King

The Good Neighbor:  The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King, 416 pages 

This was the first full-length biography of Fred Rogers ever published.  It covers everything from his upbringing as the lonely, often-bullied son of rich parents to his rise to fame as the host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on PBS and his continuing legacy as the nicest person in the entire world.  The book also compares Sesame Street's louder, faster-paced world to the Neighborhood's slower, quieter, almost zen approach to educational programming.  Considering that both are well-known, long-running kids' shows on PBS, the comparison does make sense.  Although I watched both shows as a kid, I never thought to compare them until reading King's book.  

There are a lot of anecdotes from Rogers' family members, as well as people he worked with on the Neighborhood and on other shows, including Old Friends...New Friends, which was his brief attempt at producing a talk show for adults.  My favorite of these anecdotes involves a family who visited the set of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.  The family's 12-year-old son was autistic and nonverbal.  When Mr. Rogers came out to greet the family, he brought the King Friday XIII and Queen Sara Saturday puppets with him, and spoke to the boy in-character as the puppets.  The boy carried on an entire conversation with the King and Queen of Make-Believe.  His father was crying so hard that a crew member had to hold the camcorder for him, and that same crew member gave the family their own puppets so they could communicate with their son at home. 

The author, Maxwell King, was a longtime acquaintance of Fred Rogers, and his admiration for him shows through in his writing.  Unfortunately, King is not the best writer.  I occasionally had to reread a sentence multiple times before I could figure out what he meant to say.  Several times, I was left puzzled by his odd choice of words.  The book is also rather repetitive; information that was in previous chapters often shows up again in later chapters.  As a result, each chapter feels more like a self-contained essay than part of a cohesive whole.  Despite these flaws, however, I would still recommend The Good Neighbor to any friend or neighbor who is interested in learning about Fred Rogers himself or Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

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