Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful book from an American Hero
Review: Fulghum's outlook on life is refreshing. He finds simple pleasures in everyday life that many people are missing. The core of his book(s) revolves around treating ourselves and others with kindness, exploring everything with wonder our Surroundings, and giving each other that special kind of boost that says I know your their and I'm glad. If you're looking for deep thought and didn't find it here I challenge you to reread it. I would go so far to say that he is the Tao Tzu of out times. In a world so filled with hatred and actions designed to break others down Fulghum has written a book that can bring the kind, wonderous child in all of us out. I cannot recommend it more.finally, Yes I always buy lemonaid from kids on the street corner even if I have to circle the block. It's worth the smiles :)
Rating:
Summary: Buy it, read it, enjoy it, recommend it!
Review: Robert Fulghum has written a book of philosophy disguised as a book of anecdotes. Each lasts a couple of pages or so and is just enough to convey some important principle. They range from the trite to the inspirational, the mundane to the spiritual. Along the way he gives us his thoughts on grandfathers, God, children, giraffes, and just about everything you need to know. Some of his stories are about the man next door, others about famous people. Some are real, others made up, but they all convey universal truths. When you read this book you will probably think 'Hey I knew that already!' But all the same it's heart warming to have someone tell you in such a homely, friendly style. By the end of the book I felt I knew Robert Fulghum and would be happy to invite him to tea with me any time he happened to be passing. I read this on recommendation and in turn will be recommending it to anyone who will listen.
Rating: 
Summary: Simple-minded, boring stuff
Review: I remember exactly where I threw this book into the trash. It was in a chapter where Fulghum was wondering where all our "childhood potential" had gone. That is to say, kindergartners (allegedly) all say they can dance AND sing AND paint AND do anything at all. But when you talk with people of college age, you suddenly discover that they have chosen specialties, and are no longer acting as if they had "unlimited potential" in everything. Fulghum, bathetically, weeps over this enormous loss (?) and wonders what can be wrong with the world which so limits our unlimited potential. (Shades of the lunatic Rousseau!) As it happened, I was reading William James at the time, and William James produced an excellent explanation of the development which Fulghum was complaining about. To paraphrase: every man would like to be a millionaire, and a great lover, and a saint, and a famous warrior, and a philanthropist, and a star athlete, and a world-famous gourmet. BUT, once you start looking at things seriously, you obviously have to choose, because these roles cannot all fit together in one human being. The philanthropist would be at war with the millionaire, and the saint would conflict with the warrior, and the gourmet would conflict with the athlete. So we all concentrate on finding our strong points and developing them. People who are musically gifted will study music intensely, while mathematicians will pursue math. As James said, "I myself am a psychologist. I don't mind a bit if you can beat me in Ancient Greek, because I no longer 'carry that line,' as a shopkeeper would say. But, if you say that you are better than me at psychology, my attention is immediately engaged, because my intent is to be the best psychologist in the world." This is the normal pattern of child and adolescent development. That Fulghum could be ignorant of such an obvious thing truly does make one think that he stopped learning in kindergarten. And some people think that education is a life-long process! :-0 This book is poppycock. Not recommended at all.
Rating:
Summary: Small Thoughts on Big Ideas
Review: I would recommend this book to anyone. The basic principle of the book is, everything you need to know about life, and how to live successfully stem from the basics that we all learned in kindergarten. Often, in many books there is a boring spot. Either the reader gets tired of waiting for the characters to interact with each other, or the plot isn't moving along, etc. With All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten, this is never the problem. Since each story is very short, if you don't like the characters in a story, it will be over shortly. The stories in the beginning of the book were the most meaningful, while at the end, the stories were incredibly good. In the middle of the book, the stories weren't as good, and the theme of Christmas was in about ten different stories. Since there are only about 60 stories, you can image how this got redundant. Other than these, I could personally relate to the essays and I think that anyone else would be able to also.
Rating:
Summary: Be aware of wonder.
Review: "A part of this -- the part about what I learned in kindergarten -- was passed around the country until it took on a life of its own. One day it was sent home in the knapsack of a child whose mother is a literary agent..." (Robert Fulghum) Thus history was written -- serendipitous indeed. I have read the chain message, which lists these gems, many times from various Internet friends, throughout the years. Many of the phrases are clichés now because of the truth within the words. Finding fragments of our own lives in these pages is easy. Fulghum consolidated his extensive Credo of life into a simpler format, such as: "Remember the Dick and Jane books and the first word you learned -- the biggest word of all -- is LOOK." Look both ways... look into the heart of the matter... look at yourself... look at history... look what happened... look at what you missed.... All of the kindergarten principles are found in the first three pages, and then Fulghum reveals how he applied these ideals throughout his life. One example is his encounters with a neighbor who was a "raker and a shoveler." He picked up the leaves and shoveled away the snow, but with the attitude of you "can't let old Mother Nature get ahead of you," and considered Fulghum to be a lazy neighbor. The leaves pile up, become mulch, and make more earth. The snow melts and feeds the land. Nature has taken care of itself for a long time. I imagined someone going into the woods and everywhere else, daily gathering leaves in a constant frustrating battle, and at season's change shoveling the snow from one place to another. Of course, I would want the leaves raked up and the snow shoveled off the driveway and sidewalk, but my dad, who understood the cycle, put the greens in the garden. Fulghum shows the fallacy of gender encoding through a simple example about cars -- the Y chromosome does not mean a man knows about jumper cables. "Besides, this guy only asked me if I 'had' jumper cables, not if I knew how to 'use' them." He describes an incident where he and the stranded collaborator swaggered around, "being all macho and cool and talking automobile talk." They looked under the hood of the car, and there was no battery. "'Hell,' I said, 'there's your problem right there. Somebody stole your battery.'" In these marvelous vignettes, Fulghum shows a simpler way to look at those things we confront in life. The book was first published in 1986, and it is still being published. Very few books survive this long -- only the good ones do. Five stars. Victoria Tarrani
Rating:
Summary: Delightful and truly simple
Review: I read this book and I found it truly wonderful for its simple day to day thoughts. Its simplicity is delightful and inspiring. Shouldn't we all think a little bit more about what truly matters in our daily life?. All people should find time to read this book and lighten her/his day! Enjoy yourselves!
Rating: 
Summary: Much Better Than Expected
Review: Got this book on a whim. Expected it to be drivel. Very pleasantly surprised; even other guys may tear up at the touching humor of this cute, easy read.
Rating:
Summary: A common man attempting to be Plato or Socrates,
Review: I admit, the kindergarten analogy is quite well though of. But the title of the book only refers to three pages of the longest 196 page book one will ever read. Robert Fulghum searched for so much meaning in the simplest things it is unreal. There are few brilliant philosophical points this man makes. you can really sense his reaching for meaning in every thing. He is a noncomformist because it fits the book. He says that we shouldn't shovel snow or rake leaves, because God wouldn't want it that way. Every sotry is about his life and had he written a biography, I may have understood some parts to his story. There are points in the book where I really though he was going to flash so genius and then he just cuts out and goes flat. Fulghum is no philosopher, if you want to read this book for some reason, go to library, save yourself the money.
Rating:
Summary: Over-rated
Review: For some reasons this book was recomended by mass media in Hong Kong. I read and found it very disappointing.
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Summary: I wrote my college essay based on this!!!!!!!
Review: What a wonderful book! This is what life is all about, slowing down enough to laugh at it. My Grandma, Judy Sroka, was Fulghum's biggest advocate. I must have gotten it from her. It is amazing just how dead on he is about life and how to simply be happy!! That's the ultimate goal, isn't it? Happiness? His balanced life theory is quite an amazing way to get there! We know all of the things he writes, but we simply don't notice them or put them to good use. How silly of us! As for myself, I am in love with the afternoon nap with cookies and milk idea!!! I wrote my Whitman college application essay based on his balanced life theory, let's hope they like it!! For anyone who is in need of a little life help (as I was when I read this book), this is a must read! We make life much to complicated. Learn to slow down and take in the simple things, that is all Fulghum's saying. What a great message!!!
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