The Gifted School

A Novel

By: Bruce Holsinger

Narrated by: January LaVoy

Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Instant national best seller

"Wise and addictive...The Gifted School is the juiciest novel I've read in ages...a suspenseful, laugh-out-loud page-turner and an incisive inspection of privilege, race and class." (J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Friends and Strangers, in The New York Times)

Smart and juicy, an addictive novel about a previously happy group of friends and parents that is nearly destroyed by their own competitiveness when an exclusive school for gifted children opens in the community

This deliciously sharp novel captures the relentless ambitions and fears that animate parents and their children in modern America, exploring the conflicts between achievement and potential, talent and privilege.

Set in the fictional town of Crystal, Colorado, The Gifted School is a keenly entertaining novel that observes the drama within a community of friends and parents as good intentions and high ambitions collide in a pile-up with long-held secrets and lies. Seen through the lens of four families who've been a part of one another's lives since their kids were born over a decade ago, the story reveals not only the lengths that some adults are willing to go to get ahead, but the effect on the group's children, sibling relationships, marriages, and careers, as simmering resentments come to a boil and long-buried, explosive secrets surface and detonate. It's a humorous, keenly observed, timely take on ambitious parents, willful kids, and the pursuit of prestige, no matter the cost.

©2019 Bruce Holsinger (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A page-turning meditation on what it means to be gifted - and how far parents will go to prove it." (NPR)

"[A] timely and relevant read for the summer." (Oprahmag.com)

"Holsinger’s sharp observation, knack for dialogue, acerbic social commentary and droll descriptive gifts all add up to a heady brew. As the adults scheme intently and their beleaguered children act out their frustrations, The Gifted School becomes a sharp, skeptical primer on how things stand in 2010s America where everyone is desperate to get their slice of an ever-shrinking economic pie." (The Boston Globe)

A little like work.

I spent over 40 years working in the gifted and talented field. This felt like many of the issues I dealt with. The drama at the end was so fun!

loved it! couldn't stop listening :-)

anyone who has kids or teaches or deals with highly competitive people always trying to keep up with the Joneses, this book is for you you're really going to like it

Liked book, disliked narrator

I liked the book but wish it had a different narrator. The reader fluctuated the volume of her voice so often that I kept having to adjust my headphones. The author also portrays all the men’s voices in an overly dramatic way, which I found annoying.

Great book for Educators

This book showed both sides of the educational world. Both sides of characters were well-developed and the parents were a wide-array which was nice. Definitely a good book to read for people with kids or who work in the school systems!

Timely novel!

Has a similar feeling to Little Fires Everywhere! Very timely especially after the Ivy League admission scandals

Great story with original plot

I enjoyed this book and thought the narrator was fabulous! Will look for more from this author and the narrator!

January LaVoy makes this come alive!

I turn to January LaVoy when I want to hear the best of my profession and this was no exception. excellent book, and LaVoy handles emotions, ages, genders, accents and angst smoothly and professionally, never taking you out of the story.

The fictitious town of Crystal, Colorado is proud of its liberalism, inclusion, and benevolence toward the surrounding areas of lesser affluence... which are largely invisible except to provide Crystal's elite with their house cleaners, garbage men, and yard worker.

But when a competition is announced for a brand new school for gifted children, the ruthlessness, resentments, and jealousies of the parents threaten to destroy families, friendships, their children and the entire fabric of the community.

Excellent listen, kudos to author and narrator!

Handling today's suburban/college town parents

There are many reasons why college towns are so brutally segregated, and a big part of it is that parents who are so desperate to prove the brilliance of their children fear that exposure to diversity and/or poverty will damage the kids - or at least their Ivy League/Public Ivy admissions.

Holsinger explores this in a way that not just spins an entertaining story but which even allows for a touch of empathy for the entitled amoral crowd populating the book.

Yes, it's a familiar theme, but the story is original and the view is incisive.

Great narrator too. Amazing ability to voice different characters without ever seeming contrived.

Fun, light listen

For the murfs.

The book is very timely: covered murf anxieties. Bourgeois parents worry that kids are getting crunched between affirmative action & legacies for limited spots at elite academic institutions. The author was attuned to why we are all pushing our kids way too hard with extracurriculars & academic success—and why it appears that we are so competitive with other families. It’s horrible. I try to explain it to Europeans & Aussies, but they can’t even comprehend it.

We all view childhood as a zero sum game instead of a community for betterment and growth.

Surprised this was written by a dude.

I loved it and you will definitely get through it super fast, because it is a fun novel. At times, maybe slightly corny. But the characters were well-developed and I liked the author’s wide-breadth of general knowledge. And I liked just how pertinent the storyline to current affairs.

Story would have been better read

The narrator mispronounced many words. I cringed. Wish I had read it instead of listened to it.