Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Reading for the Gifted Student

Has anybody used the books in the Reading for the Gifted Student series? I am in New Zealand, where we don't have Barnes & Noble, so I can't browse the books to choose the appropriate level for my son. There are no sample pages in any of the online bookstores that I've looked at. He is 7 with a reading age of about 13. Any suggestions as to which one to buy? Thanks.

Check out the thread in this forum on books- I never buy a book without checking it : )

I have not seen the series...will google around for it.

Amazon has it listed too, with a couple good reviews, but I only saw first grade, they have math, too, I might have to check that out.

Here's an Amazon search showing results up to grade 6. I'm not sure if any exist beyond that, but if so I haven't seen them.

kiwi, I think it depends on how that reading age of 13 was assessed. If it's something like a quickie assessment tool like the DORA test, he might well get benefit out of something less than the 6th grade one. If your child has all the reading skills of a typical 13 year old, I might just spring for the 6th grade one and hope for the best. In fact that's probably a good idea to start off; they're not very expensive and if it's a little above the optimal range for your son (which might be unlikely, I have no way of knowing) you can keep it on the shelf until he's ready, while you order other ones; if it's beneath his level you can return it and search for something else.

The latest reading age was assessed at school by a PROBE. I think we have different tests here from most of you. This one claims to assess overall fluency through speed, hesitations, omissions, insertions and dependence and reading comprehension through questions that cover literal, inference, vocabulary, evaluation, re-organisation and reaction. That's where I've got 13 from. His reading age was 12.4 on the WIAT-II when he had just turned five. So I figure if I'm aiming for somewhere round thirteen it should be fine.

We already have one of the maths ones. We just had to have a bit of a guess and got third grade because we read somewhere that since the books are aimed at gifted students it was fine just to go for the grade they would be in if they hadn't been accelerated. So we did and it was too easy, but he enjoyed it anyway as a fun activity book.

We have used other books in the gifted student series and really liked them. I have gone one grade up for each of my kids in these books and been just fine. I haven't looked at the reading ones... but I probably should for my 5 yr old since that is his weaker area.

I had no idea this series existed. Thanks! Here's one for math .

Yep, I have a high opinion of the reading and math ones. I saw one of the new vocab ones at Barnes & Noble and was underwhelmed by that one, though.

I went into Barnes & Noble today and looked thru the books. They looked as good as the math looked. I am using math for ds5 a grade up right now and he is whizzing thru it. For reading, I would need it on grade level, and that I didn't find for kinder