Also, if you change that to "children's shows" instead of "children's books", most of them are set in something resembling a suburb: Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, Bubble Guppies, etc. Sesame Street is a notable exception.
It's always bothered me that the local government of Adventure Bay chose to outsource pretty much all municipal services to a ten year old boy and his back of trained dogs.
Bubble Guppies routinely has weird consequences of choosing their cast and setting to be mer-people but that premise being incredibly restrictive to a long running show.
They float and swim around like fish yet somehow they have scenes that will involve something like gathering around the ol' underwater campfire or they'll be "at the beach" and you see their air bubbles floating up, yet you also see waves lapping up on the sand or them build a sandcastle. Or the episode featuring the town fire department and they teach fire safety. They also had an episode where they adopted a puppy. Not a mer-puppy, just a regular dog that would drown shown next to the clearly-just-a-fish teacher Mr. Grouper. Or the episode about _air_planes. Nevermind that the show is clearly tries for an ocean theme most of the time and guppies are a freshwater fish.
I'm glad my kids are aging out of this nonsense. At least Mr. Rogers spoke to kids like real people with emotions and intelligence instead of just assuming they're too stupid to recognize massive internal-inconsistencies.
As someone who shares your dislike of Bubble Guppies and also has very positive feelings about my childhood of watching Mr. Rogers, I must say I've been very impressed with the Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. It does a very good job of framing issues faced by children (anger, jealousy, fear, etc.) in a realistic ways and teaching them coping mechanisms.
I'm sure the parent poster is familiar with it, but figured I'd throw out a good word for any current or future HN parents of young children who might be on the lookout for something better than the average drivel the passes for children's TV.
Kids don't care about internal inconsistencies. Frankly, neither do many adults (see: practically all Marvel movies)
The show is pretty educational - kids learn about sharing, professions, sing songs about the universe, go on crazy adventures, etc. Mr. Rogers was great in a time when the word was much slower, but now a kids show in 2020 needs lots of pizazz to keep a child's attention.
(I can't believe I'm debating Bubble Guppies on HN)
Don't be dissing on Mr Rogers, my friend. The show still keeps the attention of modern kids just as well as it did in the 70s, 80s and 90s. My kids would point to the picture of Mr Rogers on the back of their Daniel Tiger books and ask to watch him.
I never caught that juxtaposition. I wonder if it was intentional or coincidental.
Mr. Rogers also transitions between small town America and a (walkable) fantasy kingdom with a street car connecting the two. Again ... probably doesn't mean anything.