About - Van Stone: Name Brand – Philadelphia, PA - Presents: Where in Philly Is Roger Robbie “the Hip Hop Raccoon? – Announcement - rogerrobbiehiphop.org Website - Anti-Gun Violence Campaign

 About - Van Stone: Name Brand – Philadelphia, PA - Presents: Where in Philly Is Roger Robbie “the Hip Hop Raccoon? – Announcement - rogerrobbiehiphop.org Website - Anti-Gun Violence Campaign   

 Roger Robbie, "the Hip-Hop Raccoon

Where in Philly Is Roger Robbie “the Hip Hop Raccoon?" is an American Arts  television show, print show and radio show series based on a collaboration of educational children’s value posters, educational children’s superhero coloring books, and educational policy and the arts readers websites. 

The children’s value posters and books were created by Herb Rogers Jr., Educator and Robert L. Jefferson, Sr., Artist and was originally promoted from 1992 to 2006; the superhero coloring books and shows and websites were produced by Van Stone of the Van Stone Productions Foundation, Inc., and originally aired from 1997 to present, on Saturday mornings during its WVSR1360.1 FM Kids broadcasting block; with the Philadelphia Front Page News, online newspaper. 

The series won a Philadelphia City Council Award for Children’s Educational Learning and Educational Art in 1994, and has had several spin-off series. The series won Philadelphia City Council over once again for its promotional campaigns about reducing gun violence. 

Beginning in 2002 Roger Robbie was spun-off from being a lovable family raccoon series fighting for better education within the school culture which became a lovable action and adventure raccoon series fighting for better violence reduction within the hip hop culture. 

“All Roger Robbie reading material has been redesigned to be a pet-book,” says Stone.

“Roger Robbie is a superhero that has several different superhero abilities." 

"He has the super power to disguise as domestic or wild animals that are nearly his size. RR could become a cat, a dog, or even a mid-size wild animal, said Stone.”

He has super intelligence, a great memory, and cool problem-solving abilities. He doesn't carry a gun as a weapon; RR carries a camera, all types of cameras, instead. He excels in the arts of: science, math, and reading; with exemplary skills in carrying out the important duties of an attorney and martial artist. And he can rock with the best of them to anything Hip Hop beat.    

In addition, his "masked bandit" reputation doesn't just come from the dark markings around the eyes. Raccoons are quite adept at breaking through latches and other secured areas if their curiosity gets the best of them. 

RR is well equipped for breaking through secured areas wherever books are stored. "He has a thing for getting in and out quickly of any place that has something to do with libraries and such," says Stone. "If access to library has been cut off from his friends, RR will find a way to get to the books so that books in there can be read."        

Stone enjoys promoting more book reading when kids are really young. Children may begin to enjoy and understand a few more things about books at an early age.

“That’s just because not all animals may be safe as pets.”  “It’s the animal literature that can and will make a book a pet; and kids will keep books for their own safe keeping,” he said.    

‘Roger Robbie and Friends’ – ‘Superheroes, U7 and the Heroes of the Last Q,’ was its first spin-off from the Rogers Jr. and Jefferson, Sr. series of posters and books about Roger Robbie; ‘RR’ the Hip Hop Raccoon and superhero U7 and their Heroes of the Last Q friends is adventure comic strips, comic books and novel collectables.

Van Stone has used hip hop themes to write more about Roger Robbie since 1994.

‘Where in Philly Is RR’ is a second spin-off.  The radio segment and the website about where in Philly is Roger Robbie are a promotion for anti-gun violence.

There are more items that have been developed making them a third Roger Robbie spin-off.

Here are some of the most recent items about Roger Robbie; RR mascot costumes about sports, RR illustrations drawn in posters and books as a target for readers to find; and RR special guest appearances with his music DJ at events including schools, clubs and social gatherings.

“The RR website is part of my dedication and tribute to both Herb Rogers, Jr. and Robert L. Jefferson,” says Van Stone.  

“I never met Mr. Jefferson. But Mr. Rogers was my mentor; I was his protégé,” says Stone.

“He designed, produced and wrote books. I did those things, too.” 

But designing, producing and book writing drove home the point that in the larger scheme of things, mentor and protégé were more alike than different. 

Rogers Jr. most cherished experience was teaching an all-boys class at the Alain Locke School for their first and second grades in 1968. A full-page story was dedicated to that experiment nearly twenty-seven years later in the Philadelphia Inquirer.  

Rogers had begun a search for his ‘boys from room 109.’ The boys were students that had attended the Alain Locke Elementary located in West Philly.

Twenty-eight of the 34 boys in the class graduated from high school, with 16 going on to college; I said he would be a teacher that I would always remember,” says Stone.

“Then, lo and behold, he turned up in the Inquirer looking for me after all those years.” 

Rogers Jr. and Robert L. Jefferson, Sr., two people who have told stories in which animals act in human-like ways, had made an agreement to name their lovable raccoon character after themselves.

Roger, was his given first name, named after Rogers Jr., and Robbie, was his last given name, named after Robert; this is how Roger Robbie was born.       

Roger Robbie, however, is a fictional character from a children’s books, “Roger Robbie and the Backward ABC’s” and “Roger Robbie Discovers Dr. J’s Secrets,” written by Herb Rogers, Jr. and illustrated by Robert L. Jefferson, Sr. 

These are stories too are about how an unusual and marginalized character learns about letter values.

These stories are also about a legendary athletic sports star’s secrets.

They are also about light and playful story telling set across Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as imagined and told by Roger Robbie himself. 

These books are the perfect introduction to positive values for 3–9-year-olds, but the illustrations and playful rhyming text will delight people of all ages; especially those who love Philly.  

“The character is affectionately known as the Hip Hop raccoon. That is also the perfect way to make an introduction about the Hip Hop culture,” Stone said.  

With most teens being familiar with Hip Hop, youth may take the rhythm book combination to the next level.  

The initial print run was funded via a popular writer campaign and you can now buy it from the Van Stone Philadelphia group; Van Stone is shipping copies from distribution hubs in the US,

Robert L. Jefferson, Sr, was a masterly artist and former image creator (1929-2014). Herbert Rogers Jr., was a longtime educator and former principal (1932-2017); amazingly, both exemplary men of the arts died when they were 85. 

Van Stone, author and creator, has lots of fun promoting Roger Robbie as the raccoon hip hops his way across Philly and elsewhere.  

“Campaigning about education, campaigning about policy and the arts, and campaigning about reducing gun violence, is what I hope you’re gonna have lots of fun doing, too,” says Stone. 

Promoting anti-violence and anti-gun violence is what Roger Robbie does all throughout the town.

“Everyone just has to try and find RR,” says Stone. “Where is Roger Robbie in your home town?”   

Visit the Roger Robbie the Hip Hop Raccoon web address at rogerrobbiehiphop.org. to learn more info about the character and friends. Or contact Van Stone at wvsr1360@yahoo.com. Call (215) 821-9147.