Customer Reviews

Mellow Out, They Say. If I Only Could: Intensities and Sensitivities of the Young and Bright

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This book gives you a true perspective of what it is like to be highly and profoundly gifted. Being gifted is not what you produce, but something you are, like being dyslexic. Mellow Out examines how the five intensities the gifted have affect their whole lives. The anecdotes and real-life responses to the author's questions enliven and add credibility to this book. I am gifted myself, have raised two gifted children, and worked with the gifted in public schools for the past thirty years. This book is a "must have" on the shelf of anyone who wants to understand the gifted and help them cope with their differences.

"Piechowski begins and ends his book with the assertion that he wants to give voice to gifted adolescents and their experiences of emotional and spiritual growth. Quoting liberally from interviews, surveys and interactions with gifted children & adolescents over the course of 3 different studies and 40 years, Piechowski conveys the unique quality of inner development experienced by gifted individuals. The overall effect is one of a revered expert in the field of gifted education sharing his cherished work" Gifted Child Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 1, page 102

Mellow Out, They Say. If I Only Could: Intensities and Sensitivities of the Young and Bright
This book is a bit heavy going and some sections are rather draggy. Having said that, I found the section on Imagination especially very valuable and interesting. The topic is covered in depth, and it is an aspect of gifted children that is often overlooked or not discussed more than in passing in other books and articles. I really liked the indepth coverage given to this area in this book.

Overall though, the book is well worth reading because it appears to be the only one on this very significant topic of Dabrowski OEs.

The author's theories are interesting, but just that, and not always well-supported. I don't feel like I understand my gifted and sensitive son any more for having read this book. I did enjoy some of the answers children gave to the questionnaires, but I wonder how they would have compared to answers from supposedly non-gifted children.