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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
As a non-football person I had no idea who Jim Thorpe was, but now I know all about him from Steve Sheinkin's book. I will admit that I care nothing about football, but give me a good underdog story and I am all in. The story of Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School is just that. They changed the game of football forever. They changed how it was played and who dominated the sport and basically made it into the game everyone enjoys today. And they were coached by Pop Warner, who even I had heard of!
There were several things that really stood out for me in this book. The first was that people have been debating the safety of football from the very beginning and it is a lot safer now than it was then. People died or were severally injured on a regular basis back in the early 1900s during the first days of football. It was not a safe sport and many schools and politicians debated whether it should continue to be played.
The second thing that really stood out for me was the Carlisle Indian School. I do wish Sheinkin had spent a bit more time on forced boarding schools for American Indians and just how traumatic this was for those populations. He briefly touches on it and I realize that an entire book could be spent on the treatment of Native Americans by the US government. I am not sure readers will understand just how horrible these places were for the students and how they tried to strip their native identities away from them.
What Sheinkin does really well here is make football exciting. The descriptions of the games were nailbiters and you could really feel the rivalries between the different schools. I did find it interesting that Carlisle was playing all these big colleges when its students graduated with basically a high school degree. Even with that unevenness, Carlisle still managed to become the biggest name in football.
I found Jim Thorpe's life kind of tragic, but fascinating. He was truly a gifted athlete and today would have been wealthy beyond measure. He could do it all it seems: football, baseball, track. I thought it was terrible the way he was treated after the Olympics. He won gold but had his medals stripped away because he played semi-pro baseball a couple of summers. The International Olympic committee even said it was fine, but the American committee took away his medals. Would this have happened if he was white? Most likely not and that is a shame! I also thought it was terrible that Pop Warner and Carlisle did not stand by him as they should have. He was betrayed by both his country and the people who were supposed to protect him.
Even if you are like me and don't like football, I would still recommend this book as a fascinating read into a bit of history not everyone is aware of.
There were several things that really stood out for me in this book. The first was that people have been debating the safety of football from the very beginning and it is a lot safer now than it was then. People died or were severally injured on a regular basis back in the early 1900s during the first days of football. It was not a safe sport and many schools and politicians debated whether it should continue to be played.
The second thing that really stood out for me was the Carlisle Indian School. I do wish Sheinkin had spent a bit more time on forced boarding schools for American Indians and just how traumatic this was for those populations. He briefly touches on it and I realize that an entire book could be spent on the treatment of Native Americans by the US government. I am not sure readers will understand just how horrible these places were for the students and how they tried to strip their native identities away from them.
What Sheinkin does really well here is make football exciting. The descriptions of the games were nailbiters and you could really feel the rivalries between the different schools. I did find it interesting that Carlisle was playing all these big colleges when its students graduated with basically a high school degree. Even with that unevenness, Carlisle still managed to become the biggest name in football.
I found Jim Thorpe's life kind of tragic, but fascinating. He was truly a gifted athlete and today would have been wealthy beyond measure. He could do it all it seems: football, baseball, track. I thought it was terrible the way he was treated after the Olympics. He won gold but had his medals stripped away because he played semi-pro baseball a couple of summers. The International Olympic committee even said it was fine, but the American committee took away his medals. Would this have happened if he was white? Most likely not and that is a shame! I also thought it was terrible that Pop Warner and Carlisle did not stand by him as they should have. He was betrayed by both his country and the people who were supposed to protect him.
Even if you are like me and don't like football, I would still recommend this book as a fascinating read into a bit of history not everyone is aware of.
A fascinating retelling of not only Jim Thorpe's story, but also the origins of football in America.
I learned so much about early football and how Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle team influenced how the game is played today. Short sections and lots of actual photographs make this another accessible, interesting read by Steve Sheinkin.
When I was a child, the name didn't mean much to me. It was simply the next town over from where I was born and raised. But as I got older, I heard the story of Jim Thorpe, all American, Olympian, greatest athlete ever. Little did I know that just miles down the road was a monument, a memorial to one of the greatest athletes who graced this Earth.
If you've never visited the memorial, and you're in NEPA, please do so. It's much like the man. Simple, respectful, quiet, and peaceful, but shows great respect.
I also very much enjoyed reading about the evolution of football and Pop Warner. As a football fan, much of this was new to me, and again, I have great respect for the Carlisle football team in revolutionizing football at that time.
This book did bring up varying degrees of emotion for me. The immense respect I had for Jim Thorpe, juxtaposed with the anger I felt in hearing how so many non-athletes were treated at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. I know that amends are being made, and that it's being done with the most utmost respect for the deceased. Sad still, that so many were taken away from their families and their heritage "erased."
I also know that there is great animosity over Jim Thorpe's body being brought to the former Mauch Chunk. All I will say about that is this - that town honors and knows what Jim Thorpe has meant to their community. Please don't think otherwise.
If you've never visited the memorial, and you're in NEPA, please do so. It's much like the man. Simple, respectful, quiet, and peaceful, but shows great respect.
I also very much enjoyed reading about the evolution of football and Pop Warner. As a football fan, much of this was new to me, and again, I have great respect for the Carlisle football team in revolutionizing football at that time.
This book did bring up varying degrees of emotion for me. The immense respect I had for Jim Thorpe, juxtaposed with the anger I felt in hearing how so many non-athletes were treated at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. I know that amends are being made, and that it's being done with the most utmost respect for the deceased. Sad still, that so many were taken away from their families and their heritage "erased."
I also know that there is great animosity over Jim Thorpe's body being brought to the former Mauch Chunk. All I will say about that is this - that town honors and knows what Jim Thorpe has meant to their community. Please don't think otherwise.
This was an interesting mash up of sports and Native American history with Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School as the centerpiece. It's well written (although definitely skews down to the youngest of our age range), and well researched.
The football never completely overshadows the Native American history aspects of the narrative, however I do wish that Sheinkin had focused a bit more on the atrocities of the school. At times the school feels like a great place...but that's because we are mainly only seeing the football side of it.
I did like the exploration of football injuries, and whether or not Pop Warner actually cared for his players, or just exploited them. Both of these are timely topics that are relevant today.
Overall a good title, appropriate for middle school students (although it might take a little handselling...my history fans want war stories, and my sports fans don't want history...)
The football never completely overshadows the Native American history aspects of the narrative, however I do wish that Sheinkin had focused a bit more on the atrocities of the school. At times the school feels like a great place...but that's because we are mainly only seeing the football side of it.
I did like the exploration of football injuries, and whether or not Pop Warner actually cared for his players, or just exploited them. Both of these are timely topics that are relevant today.
Overall a good title, appropriate for middle school students (although it might take a little handselling...my history fans want war stories, and my sports fans don't want history...)
Picked this book up to read on a recent car trip from TN to New Jersey for a funeral. Perfect read for the trip. We visited Princeton just to see one of the big 4. We also stopped by Carlisle PA on the way home and drove by the school and visited a local museum. Keep the boys (6th and 7th grade) attention the whole time. Helped with the long drive. We all learned a lot!
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
This is such a good book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I felt so many emotions during it. This is a great book for all ages. I will definitely be sharing it with my children one day.
It was a pretty good book, very short read. I like the detail that is put in, it describes something tiny with so much detail- and that is amazing.
Though I don't consider myself a fan of football, this book was very interesting.