Sticky Notes: Memorable Lessons from Ordinary Moments
By Matthew Eicheldinger
Publication Date: October 15, 2024
Summary from NetGalley:
From popular personality and storyteller Matt Eicheldinger, a collection of 100 true, uplifting short stories that capture the meaning behind everyday encounters, and the small lessons woven in-between.
Every story is important. Every single one.
When middle school teacher Matt Eicheldinger had a student who wouldn’t speak at all, he decided to leave her a sticky note on her desk everyday, each one with a funny cartoon or encouraging messages. Years later, she returned to share she had saved every sticky note he had left to encourage her, leaving Eicheldinger to wonder what other extraordinary moments he missed from seemingly ordinary interactions.
Luckily, he had a way to revisit them all. For the past fifteen years, Eicheldinger has written down moments like this from his classroom, capturing literally hundreds of daily interactions between himself, students, and families.
Sticky Notes offers readers a chance to experience one hundred of these stories that capture friendship, grief, joy, and so much more. Although each story can stand on its own, Eicheldinger offers a new perspective that will help you understand what he has grown to learn over the years: there is always a greater message within the story, we just need to be ready to see it.
ARC provided by Andrews McMeel Publishing via Netgalley for an honest review.
Confession:
I discovered Matthew’s Instagram only about a year ago, after I had retired from 30+ years of teaching, but I loved it instantly. I just adored his little stories and how they perfectly captured the wonders and the positives of working with children. I was totally thrilled to see him put his little stories into a book for everyone to discover.
These little stories capture the life of a teacher and many of the positive little interactions that they have with their students. But they also show just how compassionate and considerate kids can be. We often only hear about how cruel and nasty kids can be, especially middle schoolers. But the kids featured in this book show such kindness to each other that it does give you hope that the world is not as negative as we think it is.
The stories are all very short, only two pages each, and are written in verse. But the length of the story doesn’t change the impact each one has. These little anecdotes are told with a lot of down home charm and wit and many leave you with the feeling of a warm hug. There are some sadder stories, but they all remind you what it is like to be human. I especially liked the stories where the author admits to having a bad day, and maybe not behaving his best, but how the students help him on those occasions too.
I just loved this little glimpse into the life of a middle grade teacher and his students. But this isn’t a book just for educators. I think everyone could benefit from reading this, especially on a day when things feel so dark and hopeless. This little book is a reminder of the good we all have in ourselves if we just take the time to remember to be kind to each other.
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