Like Father, Like Son

Following in the footsteps of his father, known principally for the bestseller All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Hunter Fulghum (Sam to family and friends) presents a collection of sweet, if bland, essays. His principal topic is his two children, eight-year-old daughter Sarah and five-year-old son Max, who was born with a heart defect remedied by surgery. As he relates his family's successes and failures, their joy and gloom, his children's adventures in learning to live with each other, with friends and, above all, with parents, Fulghum recalls his own early life, a happy one despite his parents' divorce, since he acquired a loving stepfather. Also figuring in his musings is his working wife, Marie, more pragmatic and less sentimental than he, whose comment on the ""wonder and beauty"" of childbirth is: ""That's malarkey. It hurt like hell, but it was worth it."" Those who enjoy feel-good reading will revel in this book. Author tour. (May)