Bringing Out the Best: A Guide for Parents of Young Gifted Children

Practical and full of good info and tips on parenting the "gifted child". Saunders moves beyond the parental ego-stroking and takes the time to educate the reader on the "hows" of "giftedness" and the challenges a parent and child face. I highly recommend this book for anyone that feels they need advice on raising a child that seems to be one step ahead.

I have to say that although I was quite skeptical, this is a great book. It has wonderful ideas for fun things to do at home, has some resources (phone numbers, addresses) for parents, and has good advice. It is well-balanced in its approach.

Not the typical alarmist book about our precious kids not having enough Latin/French/German by the time they're two years old. Recognizes giftedness as an opportunity for success academically as well as an opportunity to live a rich life, and offers practical, real-world advice about how to nurture and feed the "hungry mind" personality.

I really enjoyed "Bringing Out the Best". As a parent of one, perhaps two gifted children, I feel as though I've been entrusted with a very special responsibility. I believe it is my duty to help guide them to reach their potential, yet support and nurture them along a long and, sadly, often lonely road. I have a lot of anxieties about my ability to meet these needs. My strategy is to educate myself, in part by reading up on the topic. However, I don't have much time to read anymore because my energetic preschooler and my very curious infant keep me hopping until fairly late at night. Consequently, the only time I can focus on what I read is just before I go to sleep. This limitation affects my choice of reading material, because I need books written in a clear, fast paced style, otherwise I fall asleep and remember none of it. "Bringing Out the Best" delighted me by being informative and thorough, yet clear and easy to read. I've recommended it to my friends with gifted kids, and I recommend it to you. If your kids are gifted, chances are you'll appreciate this book for the same reasons I did!

"Bringing Out the Best" is one of a select few "must-read" boks for parents of gifted children. Along with the "Survival Guide" series, this book covers the basics in identifying, supporting, and advocating for gifted/talented (GT) children, especially young GTs. It's likely to be most useful for parents of moderately or highly gifted children, although the special challenges of profound and exceptional giftedness are discussed as well. This book has a good mix of research-based conclusions and anecdotal stories of how children, parents, educators and society at large deal with giftedness. It's written in a lively style, with the necessary jargon clearly explained so parents can talk with educators in their language. There's lots of good, solid information in the book, but its best feature is the extensive resource/further reading list at the end of each chapter. More than a dry bibliography, Saunders introduces each reference and describes the reasons it was selected for the list.