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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
This book was an excellent overview of Fred Rogers life! 4 stars because it didn’t delve much into the personal bits of his life, and also because the organization of the book could have been a bit better (some topics were repeated multiple times throughout the book). Otherwise, a great memoir about a great man!
“Mister Rogers was the greatest teacher of all times. He taught more students than anyone else in history”
4 stars because I felt the book was very repetitive and some chapters were not needed, but overall great tribute to an awesome man that changed many children’s and adult’s lives.
4 stars because I felt the book was very repetitive and some chapters were not needed, but overall great tribute to an awesome man that changed many children’s and adult’s lives.
I have two happy memories from childhood and Mr. Rogers is one of them. I remember very little from my childhood (PTSD), but as I listened to this book on CD in my car, I remembered vividly every episode and character mentioned. This is a wonderful and thoroughly interesting biography of a truly good person, who meant a great deal to me and lots of other children.
Of course Fred Rogers wasn't perfect, he was a human — but oh, what a wonderful human!
I see there are several complaints about the writing in other reviews, but it didn't bother me too much. There were a few chapters that felt tangential and stuck on. The thing that bothered me the most was the repetitive introduction of people who had been introduced previously. So, every chapter and sometimes more frequently, King provides the full name and relationship/job of the people that Rogers interacted with (including at least one time that I noted someone being reintroduced just a few paragraphs later on the same page!). While it can be difficult to keep track of people, I think that problem is better handled by having a "who's who" list at the front or back of the book. It certainly didn't feel essential to be reminded of everyone's specific job every few pages, when that often didn't have much to do with the interaction or anecdote being related. But these writing quirks didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of getting to know more about one of my childhood heroes.
I see there are several complaints about the writing in other reviews, but it didn't bother me too much. There were a few chapters that felt tangential and stuck on. The thing that bothered me the most was the repetitive introduction of people who had been introduced previously. So, every chapter and sometimes more frequently, King provides the full name and relationship/job of the people that Rogers interacted with (including at least one time that I noted someone being reintroduced just a few paragraphs later on the same page!). While it can be difficult to keep track of people, I think that problem is better handled by having a "who's who" list at the front or back of the book. It certainly didn't feel essential to be reminded of everyone's specific job every few pages, when that often didn't have much to do with the interaction or anecdote being related. But these writing quirks didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of getting to know more about one of my childhood heroes.
While I didn't grow up watching Mr Rogers (sadly!), I've since heard so much about him.
This book makes all the more obvious that he was a decent and good man who wanted to bring positive to everyone.
With that said, I can't say this was an "enjoyable read" but it was interesting to learn more about his life and career.
*I don't give ratings to this type of book.
This book makes all the more obvious that he was a decent and good man who wanted to bring positive to everyone.
With that said, I can't say this was an "enjoyable read" but it was interesting to learn more about his life and career.
*I don't give ratings to this type of book.
Listened Summer 2019
I was excited to learn that this audiobook was narrated by LeVar Burton, and felt like it would create the perfect blend of nostalgia to listen to him read this particular biography.
I was really impressed to see how much thought and effort went in to making sure that the Neighborhood was providing high quality educational programing that was beneficial to its young watchers. I especially liked learning about the care and attention that went into word choice and making sure that phrasing was chosen to be as inclusive as possible. I also really appreciated his vehement determination to prevent advertising from being target directly at children.
The portions that provided a behind the scenes look into creating the TV show were the strongest part of the book. Rogers’ personal life comes across as fairly bland. Despite all of the work he did for children’s educational programing and to support public television, he was, after all, still a white man born into family money and he lived an unobtrusive upper-upper-middle-class life. This was not a hard-hitting expose that uncovers any dark secrets; it is an overview of the life of a kind, soft-spoken many who made children’s television. His life is more or less what you might expect it to be. I was however, surprised to learn that he was an ordained minister – as a child I had not noticed any particular religious overtones to the program.
I was excited to learn that this audiobook was narrated by LeVar Burton, and felt like it would create the perfect blend of nostalgia to listen to him read this particular biography.
I was really impressed to see how much thought and effort went in to making sure that the Neighborhood was providing high quality educational programing that was beneficial to its young watchers. I especially liked learning about the care and attention that went into word choice and making sure that phrasing was chosen to be as inclusive as possible. I also really appreciated his vehement determination to prevent advertising from being target directly at children.
The portions that provided a behind the scenes look into creating the TV show were the strongest part of the book. Rogers’ personal life comes across as fairly bland. Despite all of the work he did for children’s educational programing and to support public television, he was, after all, still a white man born into family money and he lived an unobtrusive upper-upper-middle-class life. This was not a hard-hitting expose that uncovers any dark secrets; it is an overview of the life of a kind, soft-spoken many who made children’s television. His life is more or less what you might expect it to be. I was however, surprised to learn that he was an ordained minister – as a child I had not noticed any particular religious overtones to the program.
I’m sad that I finished this book! I’ll miss my little visit in Mr Roger’s world.
Such a great, easy to listen to, well-documented biography of one of the greats of our time. Learned so much more in this. Especially liked hearing about Mr. Rogers' grandparents, his parents, and then how he started at Dartmouth, then transferred to Rollins and met his future wife there. Such thought and planning went into everything he did.