Crystal, Colorado is an ideal place to live, work, and raise a family.

When the local school district proceeds with a plan to open a public magnet school geared exclusively toward exceptionally-gifted students in the surrounding four-county area, the ideal community begins to unravel.

“The Gifted School” is the story of four families and their decade long friendship. Through the years they’ve seen each other through marital strife, financial drama, professional ups and downs, and tremendous loss, however, the competition of insuring their high-achieving and privileged children are accepted into the elite Crystal Academy brings out the worst in them all.

This novel is clever and engaging with fabulously entitled and obnoxious characters you will enjoy getting to know. 

“Yet weren’t they all cheaters, of a sort?  And were these deceptions so different from the carefully cultivated fictions Rose had built up around her own daughter over the years? Were they any worse than the parenting habits Rose and her friends indulged, telling themselves what they wanted to believe about their children — their gifts, their talents, their milestones –and doing what they could to sustain these impressions and project them into the world, then acting as if his same world owed them something in return?”

“The Gifted School” Bruce Holsinger

What I liked about this book:

1 – “Gifted” is such a loaded and emotional term for many parents and students. Holsinger does an excellent job of putting the spotlight on our tendency to elevate the academic component of giftedness while ignoring other aspects.

2 – Very creative friendship and family dynamics are fleshed out in a unique manner

3 – The recent college admission scandal shines a light on exactly how desperate parents can be to guarantee their child’s success. This book brings all new meaning to the phrase “ripped from the headlines.”

4 – Most importantly, Bruce Holsinger did his homework! He has been researching the topic of “giftedness” for 15 years and consulted with the National Association for Gifted Children while writing this novel.

5 – It’s available in hardback, paperback, audio and e-reader formats.

I’d love to know what you think of “The Gifted School.”

Happy Reading. . .