One of the virtues of this book of enrichment activities is that it provides background information (the 'ThinkAbouts') for many of the topics dealt with, so that children who have never heard of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, for example, are given a concise overview of these before being invited to go well beyond this information in the tasks suggested (the 'Challenges'). As Brian Barratt explains, the book is designed to arouse curiosity, stimulate research and encourage discovery - commendable goals that it should achieve.

The book comprises ten sections, or themes, each containing five ThinkAbouts. Sections include 'Galactic Thinking', 'The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World', 'Boys and Girls and Other Animals', 'An Inside Outside World', 'The Wonderful World of Words' (including 'What a road of lubbish!' for those Spascinated by foonerisms), 'Past Times, Pastimes & "L" Stands for "Pound"', 'What If ...?' and 'Inventive Thinking'.

The Challenges in this book vary in difficulty from those suitable for use with most children (eg, "Imagine that the doors in your house could think and talk. What sort of conversation would they have when all the humans are asleep at night?") to others that are designed to stretch the highly able (eg, "Write a thoroughly modern version of the story of the Trojan Horse. It need not involve war or military tactics. It can involve some other aspect of modern life"). ThinkAbouts is subtitled 'Activities for gifted and talented children' but many of the tasks could be attempted, albeit with differing degrees of success, by children of a wide range of abilities - and ages. That is, the activities may be used as open-ended challenges in unstreamed classes.

Another section, 'Teamwork', provides challenges that are similar to Tournament of Minds problems. These will be useful for practising TOM skills and choosing teams for TOM proper, as well as being thought-provoking and teamwork building in their own right. The tenth section, 'Pictures in Your Mind', comprises twenty computer generated fractal images that are intended to evoke creative writing responses, though an imaginative teacher might also use them as stimuli for creative dance, drama, music, sculpture or other forms of artistic expression.

While I have not field-tested the activities in ThinkAbouts, I have received only positive responses about if from practising teachers who either have used it with their own classes or have vowed to buy their own copy once shown it. Perhaps you should do the same.

Stan Bailey, UNE

TalentEd No. 54, Winter 1996

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