Sticky Notes by Matthew Eicheldinger

subtitled Memorable Lessons from Ordinary Moments.

I’ve been kind of a mess these past few weeks, even before the dismal US election results and definitely after, so this book was a wonderful antidote for despair. It isn’t entirely perfect — the vignette about Hiking Boots made me go “yeah, sure, he wound up going back to what he wanted to do all along, but I’m pretty sure he gained a lot of valuable life skills and tools along the way” — but it’s pretty darn close. Heartwarming and inspiring, this is a great book for reminding ourselves of the basic decency of most human beings, if we just care to stop and consider the fact of our shared humanity.

Matthew Eicheldinger is a middle school teacher whom I first encountered via his touching short videos on social media. He talks about the lessons he’s learned from his students, on a myriad of topics including patience and compassion and just showing up. Some of the stories can get a little schmaltzy and some of them seem to trail off instead of actually ending but they are, overall, a celebration of the kindness and generosity of middle school kids, not a demographic traditionally known for such.

It’s been extraordinarily hard for me to concentrate on reading recently, so the short vignette format of the book really helped carry me through. The vignettes are basically just a transcription of his social media videos, which is not a bad thing at all. The language is simple, the sentences direct, and each story takes about two pages. I laughed out loud at many of them (the Lizard short had me howling!) and cried at a significant number of others.

I’m also really glad that Mr Eicheldinger chose the creative non-fiction format instead of trying to, ugh, write poetry (she says, currently in the throes of writing terrible, tortured poetry after a twenty-year abstention.) In many ways, this book feels like a Robert Fulghum/Chicken Soup For The Soul-esque balm for the 2020s. Even when the world is a disaster, stories like these can uplift, giving readers hope in a brighter tomorrow where people genuinely care about each other and try their best to make the world a better place for everyone in it.

Sticky Notes by Matthew Eicheldinger was published October 15 2024 by Andrews McMeel Publishing and is available from all good booksellers, including