I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers by Tim Madigan

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This memoir recounts the deep eight-year friendship of young Texas newspaper journalist Tim Madigan and famed children's television host Fred Rogers (1928-2003). Their contact began with an interview assignment but developed steadily into numerous visits, letters, and emails. In Rogers, Madigan found an archetypal father, a nurturing mentor whom he could trust. I'm Proud of You takes its title from the supportive words that often concluded Rogers's letters and emails. A welcome visit back to a gentle neighborhood.

From the Publisher

Reminiscent of Mitch Albom and his phenomenal bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie: A journalist recalls how an encounter with the icon of kindness led to a wondrous, life-changing friendship.

It was 1995 when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram assigned Tim Madigan to write a profile of children's television icon Fred Rogers. This fortuitous interview sparked a magnificent friendship between the two, one that would see both men through periods of grief as well as the hope of new beginnings. I'm Proud of You is the story of this friendship and of the enduring legacy left to us all by Fred Rogers.

Tim's career as a journalist was flourishing when he met Fred Rogers, but his personal life was a shambles. As Rogers welcomed Tim into his family, his church, and his life, Tim found an advisor who imparted a gentle but powerful perspective on spirituality, marriage, depression, and the nature of true friendship. With his friend's loving and patient guidance, Tim eventually came to understand that his emotional troubles were rooted in a deep fear that his father had never truly been proud of him. Hence the mantra of the friendship between the two, the phrase Rogers used to conclude dozens of letters and e-mail messages to Tim: "I'm Proud of You." Tim's friendship with Rogers helped him to mend his relationship with his father and become a better husband and father himself, all the while marveling at how many simple pleasures he had overlooked throughout his life.

Tim Madigan is an award-winning newspaper journalist and the author of two critically acclaimed books, See No Evil: Blind Devotion and Bloodshed in David Koresh's Holy War and TheBurning: Massacre Destruction and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. BACKCOVER: Advance Praise for I'm Proud of You

"Reveals in a gentle and powerful way how one person can make a difference. Fred Rogers took the time out to share the most powerful gift we can give another, our unconditional love. Hopefully this book will stimulate others to reach out without judgments, to give our peace and unconditional love to everyone we meet."
-Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D., author of Love Is Letting Go of Fear

"A book to treasure, something very special, and a testament to human love that the late Mr. Rogers would indeed be proud of. . . .A truly inspiring book!"
-Michael Gurian, author of The Minds of Boys and The Wonder of Girls

"Even if readers don't feel their day-to-day lives transformed by this luminous memoir, in times of grief or of loss they'll know which book on their shelf to turn to."
-Publishers Weekly (starred)

Publishers Weekly

Warning stickers should be attached to this audiobook warning people not to listen while driving or operating heavy machinery. Only Oscar the Grouch could resist weeping during this affecting tale of the unlikely friendship between children's television host Fred Rogers and Texas journalist Madigan. After writing a profile of Rogers, the two began to correspond. With Rogers's help, Madigan began to find emotional healing from old wounds and to repair broken relationships. Baskous narrates with a voice that is warm, deep and, well, neighborly. At times he slips into an inexplicable Southern accent, which fits neither the Minnesota-bred Madigan or the Pittsburgh-based Rogers, but the rich and smooth cadences of his narration bring Madigan's remembrances to life. The uplifting nature of the memoir and the satisfying tenderness of Baskous's interpretation will make this a welcome gift for anyone who has struggled with depression or loss. Simultaneous release with the Gotham hardcover (Reviews, May 15). (Oct.)

Library Journal

Madigan, an award-winning journalist and author, found himself depressed and on the verge of a divorce in the 1990s. His deeply moving memoir examines how his friendship with Fred Rogers, otherwise known as Mister Rogers of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, helped pull him out of that depression, save his marriage, and give him a completely new perspective on life. Madigan quotes Rogers as saying that he achieved so much in school "largely because I had somebody who believed in me and wasn't afraid to say so." As a result, Rogers provided those he befriended with unconditional love and support. Madigan says that Rogers, "a person possessed of an otherworldly purity and goodness," made it possible for him to forgive and understand his own father, deal with his anger, and find peace with the sorrows of life. Although the children's television icon died in 2003, Madigan's book allows him the opportunity to teach all of us the healing nature of friendship and how important it is to tell someone you are proud of her or him. While Rogers plays an important part here, the voyage is all Madigan's. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/06.]-Mary E. Jones, Los Angeles P.L. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Another journeyman writer details the teaching and inspiration he received at the feet of a wise and kindly mentor. Move over, Morrie and Father Joe. This time, the dispenser of sympathetic understanding is the operator of his very own eponymous TV neighborhood: the late Fred Rogers (1928-2003), whose testament is herein reverentially reported. Disciple Madigan (The Burning, 2001, etc.) is, as he reminds us a few times, a prizewinning journalist. His book takes its title from the words with which Mr. Rogers usually signed off his letters to Madigan after a missive early in their relationship in which the troubled younger man asked for this reassurance. The author is a soulful, pious man who survived marital difficulties and the death of a brother with the guidance and friendship of Rogers, who was undeniably a kindly, good man. Madigan certainly makes sure we appreciate that fundamental fact. "Because of the pitch-perfect love of his letters," he writes in a not-untypical passage, "it sometimes seemed . . . that I was corresponding with God himself. (My wife would come to believe that Fred was actually Jesus, reincarnate.)" But Rogers was by all reports an intelligent and complex man, with more to him than the "celestial font of affirmation" we find here. He deserves better than a paean larded with snippets of correspondence, extracts from Madigan's newsFor those who consider life's lessons best expressed in padded greeting cards and "the Gospel According to Elbert Hubbard."

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