The Green Mister Rogers
188 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
36 color images
Paperback
Release Date:25 Mar 2022
ISBN:9781496838674
Hardcover
Release Date:25 Mar 2022
ISBN:9781496838667
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The Green Mister Rogers

Environmentalism in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

By Sara Lindey and Jason King; Foreword by Junlei Li
University Press of Mississippi

Fred Rogers was an international celebrity. He was a pioneer in children’s television, an advocate for families, and a multimedia artist and performer. He wrote the television scripts and music, performed puppetry, sang, hosted, and directed Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for more than thirty years. In his almost nine hundred episodes, Rogers pursued dramatic topics: divorce, death, war, sibling rivalry, disabilities, racism. Rogers’ direct, slow, gentle, and empathic approach is supported by his superior emotional strength, his intellectual and creative courage, and his joyful spiritual confidence.
The Green Mister Rogers: Environmentalism in “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” centers on the show’s environmentalism, primarily expressed through his themed week “Caring for the Environment,” produced in 1990 in coordination with the twentieth anniversary of Earth Day. Unfolding against a trash catastrophe in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Rogers advances an environmentalism for children that secures children in their family homes while extending their perspective to faraway places, from the local recycling center to Florida’s coral reef. Rogers depicts animal wisdom and uses puppets to voice anxiety and hope and shows an interconnected world where each part of creation is valued, and love is circulated in networks of care. Ultimately, Rogers cultivates a practical wisdom that provides a way for children to confront the environmental crisis through action and hope and, in doing so, develop into adults who possess greater care for the environment and a capacious imagination for solving the ecological problems we face.

This book expands on the impassioned, environmental teachings of Fred Rogers throughout his life. It offers yet another way to approach the work Rogers did, emphasizing his commitment to the connection and care for human and non-human relations and ecosystems. . . . This book is a must-read and a rich addition to any collection on children’s media. Jen McConnel, School Library Journal, starred review
Well researched and crafted with care, Sara Lindey and Jason King’s book explores another side of Fred Rogers: that of the environmentalist who left countless kids more intimately connected to the neighborhood we all share. With unflinching faith in our potential, Rogers trusted us to steward what makes Earth worthwhile: its trees and its oceans, its animals, and art and people. The Green Mister Rogers reminds us that our planet is a gift—one we were fortunate to share, however briefly, with a moral giant like Rogers. Gregg Behr and Ryan Rydzewski, authors of When You Wonder, You’re Learning: Mister Rogers’ Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids
Sara Lindey is professor of English at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. She has published essays in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, American Periodicals, and Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association. Jason King is professor of theology at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He is author of Faith with Benefits: Hookup Culture on Catholic Campuses and coeditor of Sex, Love, and Families: Catholic Perspectives. Currently, he edits the Journal of Moral Theology.
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