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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
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Sheinkin's ability to make history sing is on display here, even for this reader, who isn't interested in football. I am, however, interested in Jim Thorpe and I found the details about the Carlisle Indian School to be interesting, in that terrible way. There was too much football in this book for me, but I recognize that I am not the target audience. I would have appreciated a little more unpacking of the special privileges afforded to athletes. Overall, this was a solid nonfiction.
Sheinkin's ability to make history sing is on display here, even for this reader, who isn't interested in football. I am, however, interested in Jim Thorpe and I found the details about the Carlisle Indian School to be interesting, in that terrible way. There was too much football in this book for me, but I recognize that I am not the target audience. I would have appreciated a little more unpacking of the special privileges afforded to athletes. Overall, this was a solid nonfiction.
The author, Steve Sheinkin, is a white middle grade historian presenting the story of Jim Thorpe, a mixed Native and white (Sac, Fox and Irish and Potawatomi and French-Canadian) football player in the early days of the sport's inception at the Carlisle Indian School.
Sheinkin clearly did an enormous amount of research and worked with Native author Joseph Bruchac, mentioned in a note at the end and himself the author of books and a film about Thorpe, while writing the history.
He makes it very clear this is a rather simplified tale that fits in a bigger, more complex history of the Carlisle Indian School and of Indian residential schools nationwide and in Canada. Before embarking on this read, be aware of recent discoveries of unmarked graves at residential schools in Canada, and how the US Army is responding to requests to exhume and return to their families the remains of children and young adults who died while in school at Carlisle.
The book tells primarily one story, that of the football team's games and star player, Jim Thorpe. Sheinkin acknowledges that for the team's stars, like Thorpe, the school wasn't an entirely odious place to live and play ball. Not so for all the other students.
Sheinkin calls out the ignominious history of Indian schools nationwide, pointing to the parts they played in stripping Native children of their languages, cultures, and connections with their families and communities throughout the US. He also factually lays out the school's founder's bigotry and clearly odious "mission" of the school.
Then he turns his focus to the early days of the game, when it looked much different than it does now. Readers will be interested to learn kids frequently died every year playing this game, as many as seven in one year. Punching was standard and not even necessarily called a foul. Uniforms had little or no padding, and only leather caps kept the teams from grabbing and yanking each others' hair.
Sheinkin documents the team's desire to win against the Ivy League teams, particularly Harvard and Yale. He highlights the "creative" plays the coach, Pop Warner, devised for his players, taking advantage of the lack of a detailed rulebook.
Then he goes on to feature Thorpe. He makes clear the education Thorpe received there was questionable, at best. The school allowed Thorpe freedoms -- like running way and coming back -- not given to non-football stars. It focuses on the famous games between the schools, the relationship with the coach, Warner, and several of the other players.
It's an interesting look at the early days of the sport, and the complex web of hurt and opportunity the Carlisle Indian School wove over its star player.
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
Sheinkin clearly did an enormous amount of research and worked with Native author Joseph Bruchac, mentioned in a note at the end and himself the author of books and a film about Thorpe, while writing the history.
He makes it very clear this is a rather simplified tale that fits in a bigger, more complex history of the Carlisle Indian School and of Indian residential schools nationwide and in Canada. Before embarking on this read, be aware of recent discoveries of unmarked graves at residential schools in Canada, and how the US Army is responding to requests to exhume and return to their families the remains of children and young adults who died while in school at Carlisle.
The book tells primarily one story, that of the football team's games and star player, Jim Thorpe. Sheinkin acknowledges that for the team's stars, like Thorpe, the school wasn't an entirely odious place to live and play ball. Not so for all the other students.
Sheinkin calls out the ignominious history of Indian schools nationwide, pointing to the parts they played in stripping Native children of their languages, cultures, and connections with their families and communities throughout the US. He also factually lays out the school's founder's bigotry and clearly odious "mission" of the school.
Then he turns his focus to the early days of the game, when it looked much different than it does now. Readers will be interested to learn kids frequently died every year playing this game, as many as seven in one year. Punching was standard and not even necessarily called a foul. Uniforms had little or no padding, and only leather caps kept the teams from grabbing and yanking each others' hair.
Sheinkin documents the team's desire to win against the Ivy League teams, particularly Harvard and Yale. He highlights the "creative" plays the coach, Pop Warner, devised for his players, taking advantage of the lack of a detailed rulebook.
Then he goes on to feature Thorpe. He makes clear the education Thorpe received there was questionable, at best. The school allowed Thorpe freedoms -- like running way and coming back -- not given to non-football stars. It focuses on the famous games between the schools, the relationship with the coach, Warner, and several of the other players.
It's an interesting look at the early days of the sport, and the complex web of hurt and opportunity the Carlisle Indian School wove over its star player.
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
Even though I grew up in a town where Jim Thorpe worked and formed his NFL team in partnership with a local man, I never had much interest in learning about him. This book presents a snapshot of his life in school and as a pioneer in football. I highly recommend this to anyone, young or old, who wants to understand how the game of football became what it is today.
Very readable and enjoyable book about Pop Warner, Jim Thorpe, and the Carlisle Indian School football team. The book spans several years in the 1910's a college football gains steam as a popular spectator sport. The Carlisle Indian school gains notoriety as they implement new offensive schemes and work to make a name for themselves as they take on the best teams in college football. Jim Thorpe features as one of the star players for the team and he has a great career with Carlisle as well as qualifies for the Olympics in Stockholm in 1912.
Good for ages 12 and up.
Good for ages 12 and up.
Solid work from Sheinkin here, with an interesting and obscure story of history that he populates with real people, not just simple heroes and villains. I was really interested to read about how football slowly evolved into what we know today.
Suffers a little from lack of focus--being about Jim Thorpe but also the football team but also the school but also related people. It didn't hold together quite as well as usual.
I also don't usually comment on this, but the inner book design was surprisingly meh. Font was unpleasant and some stuff was weirdly spaced. I didn't read half the chapter titles since they were in such a non-intuitive place. Great pictures, though!
Suffers a little from lack of focus--being about Jim Thorpe but also the football team but also the school but also related people. It didn't hold together quite as well as usual.
I also don't usually comment on this, but the inner book design was surprisingly meh. Font was unpleasant and some stuff was weirdly spaced. I didn't read half the chapter titles since they were in such a non-intuitive place. Great pictures, though!
informative
fast-paced
The narrator was wonderful! This book was really captivating. I don't like football, but this story was so much more than just a football story. It was a historical look at Native Americans and white relations, schools that tried to rehabilitate Native Americans to make them more white, and of course, Jim Thorpe. I wish I had learned so much more about him and this period of history while it school. So important and so well-written.
ETA: I'm going to leave my original review here, but add in this review: https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2017/03/beverly-slapins-review-of-undefeated.html
Sometimes it's hard to know how much racism you have internalized, how little you think of other people. I do admit that I thought this book talked a little bit too much about Pop Warner for a book whose title refers specifically to Jim Thorpe and the football team. I still enjoyed it. That doesn't mean it is flawless, and that I missed things. I did. I encourage you to read the above review and other reviews by Native voices.
Another excellent nonfiction offering from Sheinkin, which brings up issues of the violence football causes, the way we've treated Native Americans, and shines a light on why so many youth football leagues are called "Pop Warner." I especially liked that Sheinkin does not sugarcoat the two stars of his book too much--both are complex people and shown as such. I enjoyed this one very much.
Sometimes it's hard to know how much racism you have internalized, how little you think of other people. I do admit that I thought this book talked a little bit too much about Pop Warner for a book whose title refers specifically to Jim Thorpe and the football team. I still enjoyed it. That doesn't mean it is flawless, and that I missed things. I did. I encourage you to read the above review and other reviews by Native voices.
Another excellent nonfiction offering from Sheinkin, which brings up issues of the violence football causes, the way we've treated Native Americans, and shines a light on why so many youth football leagues are called "Pop Warner." I especially liked that Sheinkin does not sugarcoat the two stars of his book too much--both are complex people and shown as such. I enjoyed this one very much.
In hopes of implementing non-fiction book groups next year I've been reading a lot of nonfiction and Steve Sheinkin books never seem to disappoint. The book had a good balance of football and Native American history and gave me nostalgia for talking with my grandpa. As a college football athlete of a different era and a big interest in Native American culture, I would have loved to hear his thoughts.