Exactly As You Are: The Life and Faith of Mister Rogers

Tuttle (coeditor, Can I Get a Witness) sets out to discover the person behind Mr. Rogers’s television personality. To accomplish this task, the author consulted primary source materials at the Fred Rogers Archive, interviewed people who knew him, and considered secondary sources. Tuttle explores Mr. Rogers’s early years, educational background, personal life, and development of his successful children’s show in Pittsburgh. Readers will discover the real Mr. Rogers was not much different from his television persona. Along with his many accomplishments, Mr. Rogers was also an ordained Presbyterian minister and his deeply held religious views helped shape the direction of his neighborhood. Through skits, puppets, songs, and visits with other characters, Mr. Rogers used his television ministry to teach children, and many adults, the timeless message that God loves us exactly as we are.