Hello, Neighbor. Matthew Cordell Brings the Life of Mr. Rogers to Life

If you could choose any children’s illustrator, past or present, to create a picture biography of you, whom would you choose? It’s a pity, but you don’t get to choose the people that tell the story of your life. The most you can hope for is that it will be someone who feels a kinship with you on some level. An artist that can see where you were coming from. Talent helps too. It would be nice if they had loads of it.

Half a year ago I heard that Caldecott Award winner Matthew Cordell was working on a picture book biography of Mr. Rogers. I did hear that. I hear a lot of news before it happens. Yet never in all my lifelong days have I heard of an upcoming picture book bio and thought to myself, “Well that makes sense. Mr. Rogers was a Matthew Cordell illustration brought to life anyway.”

Tomorrow (Saturday) it will be National Good Neighbor Day. To celebrate, USA Today is revealing the cover of Matthew’s May 2020 release Hello, Neighbor! The Kind and Caring World of Mr. Rogers. Pretty spiffy, but why bring it up? Because I have something nifty up my sleeves as well.

I have interior spreads.

Thanks to the good folks at Holiday House, here are some shots of the upcoming book:

I’d like to zero in on this last spread for just a moment. I didn’t think this was possible, but Matthew actually managed to conjure up new memories when I looked at this picture. This is, without a doubt, the single best map and character chart of The Land of Make Believe I’ve ever seen. As someone who once wrote an entire piece on the weird subversion present in the show Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, this is a subject near and dear to my heart. Amazingly, I had somehow forgotten about Cornelius and Bob Troll all these years. And do you see that purple panda?

I remember the purple panda episodes especially well. If the book mentions the operas too (no one ever remembers the operas, but they were my favorite part of the show) that’ll clinch it.

This is not the first Mr. Rogers picture book out there, and it will not be the last, but it may have a real crack at being the best. I cannot wait to see what 2020 brings.

Thanks to Matthew and Holiday House for the reveals.

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