THE BRIGHT AND THE GIFTED. Speed, F.M. and D. Appleyard. Toronto, Guidance Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Toronto, c1985. 177pp, paper, $10.00, ISBN 0-7713-0171-5. CIP Professional Reviewed by Joan McGrath Volume 14 Number 1 1986 January Being gifted, as the name implies, is something good and special; but it can also be a problem to the children identified as gifted, to their parents, and to their teachers and the administrators of their education. Not because being bright or gifted is stigmatized, but because traditionally there has been little stress upon the provision of programming to meet the special needs of the gifted child. Some gifted students, unchallenged by assignments quite sufficient to fulfil the scholastic needs of classmates, have lost interest, have even dropped out of school. Such students, bored and restless, may become discipline problems, or may develop social problems related to their dissatisfaction with regular programming. How can the brightness of bright children be burnished, rather than being allowed to tarnish? Should they be separated from their age-mates into a sort of elite corps? How will such treatment prepare them for a life that will be spent dealing with others, whether or not those others are intellectually compatible? What of the problems of identification, the fallability of testing methods, especially with the very young, the socially or culturally disadvantaged? What of the family in which one or more, but not all of the children are identified as gifted? What can parents do to foster brightness? What programming is currently available for the benefit of these special students? All these questions and more are addressed in this thoughtful study, the distilled findings of two distinguished careers concerned with this vital topic. Any parent or educator of the gifted will benefit from this wealth of useful and practical advice, and from the extensive bibliography of support material available to those doing their utmost to receive and tend this greatest of gifts with gratitude and grace. Joan McGrath, Toronto Board of Education, Toronto, Ont.