The genre of biographies and autobiographies deserves special consideration as reading materials for gifted learners. Biographies and autobiographies frequently serve as role models for gifted students by illustrating how even prominent or successful people experience triumphs, failures, and hardships throughout their lives. Encourage gifted students to seed biographies of famous people in areas of interests. Librarians can recommend numerous biographies of books with biographic vignettes relating to specific content areas.

The books listed in this article exemplify multiple kinds of giftedness, including specific subject areas, academic/intellectual, performing arts, creativity, leadership, and psychomotor. It is significant that the famous people who display giftedness in these books represent diverse ethnic population and a broad span of socioeconomic levels. Thus, these lives model that giftedness in every population.

To most effectively serve as life models in a classroom, biographies and autobiographies must focus on the following three criteria:

• Are written by authors of merit,
• Detail significant people who display gifted behaviors and whose traits are well-developed by the author, and
• Include thought-provoking problem situations, issues, or personal needs with which gifted students can identify.