Non­fic­tion

HumanKind: Chang­ing the World One Small Act At a Time

Brad Aron­son
September 1, 2020

This nation­al best­seller is filled with inspir­ing real-life sto­ries about how one small deed can make a world of dif­fer­ence. Moved by the many demon­stra­tions of ​“human kind­ness” that sup­port­ed Brad Aron­son’s fam­i­ly through his wife’s treat­ment for and recov­ery from leukemia, he writes of the peo­ple who res­cued his fam­i­ly from that dark time, often with the small­est of ges­tures. But that’s only the begin­ning. Know­ing that sim­ple acts of kind­ness trans­form lives across the globe every day, he sought out these sto­ries and shares the best ones here. In HumanKind, you’ll meet the men­tor who changed a child’s life with a sin­gle les­son in shoe tying, the six-year-old who launched a glob­al kind­ness move­ment, and many oth­er heroes. Brad also pro­vides dozens of ways to make a dif­fer­ence through the sim­plest words and deeds, show­ing how each of us has the pow­er to change some­one’s world as well as our own.

HumanKind will touch your heart and remind you of what real­ly matters.

Discussion Questions

Cour­tesy of Brad Aronson

  1. Through­out the book, there are many small acts of kind­ness. Have you expe­ri­enced a mean­ing­ful small act of kind­ness? What did it mean to you?

  2. Brad talks about how our small acts of kind­ness gen­er­al­ly reveal our love more than a grand ges­ture would. He shares that his wife’s hid­ing of $20 in his car (know­ing Brad would inevitably for­get his wal­let and need the mon­ey) and sim­i­lar small thought­ful ges­tures mean more to him than a big birth­day gift or par­ty. What do you think?

  3. What sto­ry has stuck with you the most? Why?

  4. Will you do any­thing dif­fer­ent­ly after read­ing this book? Do you have a new perspective?

  5. If you had the chance to ask the author one ques­tion, what would it be? (If your club comes up with a ques­tion, please sub­mit it here: https://​www​.bradaron​son​.com/​c​o​n​tact/. Brad will send you a response or, if the tim­ing works, join your club.)

  6. Were there any sto­ries in the book that you iden­ti­fied with? Why?

  7. Many of these sto­ries show how kind­ness often comes when we need it most— when we’re going through a dif­fi­cult time. Have you expe­ri­enced this?

  8. Was there a chap­ter that res­onat­ed most with you? Why?

  9. “Friend­ship isn’t a big thing. It’s a mil­lion lit­tle things” is a quote from the book. What does that mean to you?

  10. What was the most sur­pris­ing sto­ry in the book?

  11. What do you think about Brad’s belief that love isn’t some­thing you say but some­thing you do?

  12. If you could meet one per­son in the book, who would it be and why?

  13. In many sto­ries, the right words or a lit­tle encour­age­ment from some­one made all the dif­fer­ence. How have you expe­ri­enced the pow­er of the right words being said to you?

  14. This book is about every­day heroes. Do you know any every­day heroes?

  15. In a num­ber of sto­ries, there was a men­tor who changed someone’s life. Is there some­one who changed your life?

  16. Chap­ter 9 is about cel­e­bra­tion, and Brad writes about how when we’re dri­ving we tend to com­plain about red lights but don’t cel­e­brate the green lights. Do you agree with this? When was the last time you cel­e­brat­ed? Could you cel­e­brate more in your life? Brad men­tioned the hol­i­day his fam­i­ly invent­ed and said cel­e­brat­ing is as sim­ple as appre­ci­at­ing our every­day achieve­ments. Can you think of a new rea­son to celebrate?
Related Reading