Growing up as a gifted child is not easy, as those whose unusual abilities cause them to be segregated from their less-capable peers will tell you. And tell us they do, in If I’m So Smart, Why Aren’t the Answers Easy, a collaboration by two experts with extensive experience in teaching and counseling gifted teens. Partly an exposition of the responses to a number of research questions, and partly a journaling-directed self-help guide, If I’m so Smart… is designed to help both gifted teens and their parents and teachers to understand and cope with the unique challenges of the adolescent who is intellectually advanced.
After exploring what giftedness is and how the “label” can affect a child’s life, the book goes on to explore the benefits and challenges that “giftedness” brings to the academic, family, and social spheres of a teen’s life. Each section of the book deals with a question, or a series of questions, and then lists responses from teens and young adults. Along the way, a number of journaling exercises provide prompts for the reader to explore their own experiences and thoughts regarding each topic.
Both the respondents and the authors offer creative, practical advice for dealing with some of the worst issues that gifted teens face, including social isolation, academic frustration (school is often far too slow-paced for these quick-thinking kids), and the pressure to perform. This may be the book’s only drawback: it is easy to get bogged down in the somewhat repetitive answers to the various questions, so that it becomes just as slow-paced as the school courses that frustrate gifted students.
Despite the pacing issues, this useful guide should be a part of every gifted kid’s required reading, if only because of the psychological support that the journaling exercises and the anecdotes from other gifted kids provides. After all, the most important thing for any person to know, whether they are gifted or not, is that they are not alone.
(I received a review copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.)