Award-winning Psychologist Joan Freeman tells the dramatic stories of twenty gifted children and their journeys from promise to maturity.
Based on a unique study of gifted people spanning over 30 years, this book offers a retrospective view on what becomes of gifted children. It highlights the pitfalls and traps that parents, teachers and the children themselves can fall into, and offers ways to avoid them. Author Freeman is involved in projects such as Channel 4's "Child Genius".
"Again and again in this book, the stories surprise and confound. No one reading this book could possibly come away with simple prejudices unchallenged. ... These true stories contain lessons for us all about what it is to have, and respond to, special qualities." - John Stoboda, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Keele University, in The Psychologist
"Freeman's writing throughout is disciplined and carefully objective, without sacrificing any narrative power. ... Gifted Lives-with its many twists and turns-is captivating, inspiring, and educating. I want to recommend the book to parents and educators everywhere. It seems to me it will be easy to find a nugget of information that you can utilize almost immediately." - Joseph Cardillo, Psychology Today
"At last, an honest picture of what really happens to the gifted. Joan Freeman understands the psychology of having gifted abilities and its challenges, and has brought a breath of fresh air to this area of human development. I learned a lot and highly recommend it." - Lewis Wolpert CBE, FRS, FRSL, Emeritus Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine, University College London, UK
"A sensitive, probing and revealing analysis of the super-bright from childhood to middle-age by Britain's leading analyst of gifted children." - Brenda Maddox, biographer and winner of the Los Angeles Times Biography Award, the Silver PEN Award, the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, and the Whitbread Biography Prize.
"Joan Freeman has written engaging and often surprising portraits of 20 of the 210 gifted children she has followed into adulthood. This book will inform not only parents, teachers, and scholars of giftedness but all those interested in the unpredictable course of individual lives." - Ellen Winner, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, Boston College USA & Author of Gifted Children: Myths and Realities
