Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

Description

A great American sport and Native American history come together in this true story for middle grade readers about how Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner created the legendary Carlisle Indians football team, from New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Award recipient Steve Sheinkin. “Sheinkin has made a career of finding extraordinary stories in American history.” ― The New York Times Book Review A Boston Globe -Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book A New York Times Notable Children's Book A Washington Post Best Book Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team is an astonishing underdog sports story―and more. It’s an unflinching look at the U.S. government’s violent persecution of Native Americans and the school that was designed to erase Indian cultures. Expertly told by three-time National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin, it’s the story of a group of young men who came together at that school, the overwhelming obstacles they faced both on and off the field, and their absolute refusal to accept defeat. Jim Thorpe: Super athlete, Olympic gold medalist, Native American Pop Warner: Indomitable coach, football mastermind, Ivy League grad Before these men became legends, they met in 1907 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, where they forged one of the winningest teams in American football history. Called "the team that invented football," they took on the best opponents of their day, defeating much more privileged schools such as Harvard and the Army in a series of breathtakingly close calls, genius plays, and bone-crushing hard work. This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum. “Along with Thorpe's fascinating personal story, Sheinkin offers a thought-provoking narrative about the evolution of football and the development of boarding schools such as the Carlisle Indian School.” ― The Washington Post Also by Steve Sheinkin: Bomb: The Race to Build―and Steal―the World's Most Dangerous Weapon The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America Review: Even though it's written for high school kids who don't like reading - kids like Jim Thorpe - it will ... - A book for fans of Seabiscuit. Even though it's written for high school kids who don't like reading - kids like Jim Thorpe - it will tell you more about the origins of modern football (e.g. the forward pass, the single wing, the motion back) in the late 1800's and early 1900's than any book you are likely to read. It's as much about coach Pop Warner as about the great Jim Thorpe, both of whom were wandering, battered souls much like the restless, hurt souls of the great Jockey (Red Pollard) and the great trainer (Tom Smith) in Seabiscuit. It's also a book about the horrors inflicted by whites on Native Americans in schools like the Carlisle Indian School - schools designed to "civilize" Indians by taking the Indian out of them and leaving with "employable" skills that proved useless when graduates found that employers wouldn't hire Indians, skilled or otherwise. Mainly, it's a book about how uprooted Native American students at the Carlisle school, coached by a man who motivated his players to use the game of football to even score of what whites had inflicted on their people, were able over the course of many arduous seasons to finally and decisively demonstrate their superior teamwork, endurance and athletic prowess to the condescending football elites of their time: Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Penn. Handsomely produced, beautifully illustrated, fully researched with exhaustive notes and bibliography, this book is rarity in modern day publishing. Has anyone purchased the movie rights for it? Review: A well written tragedy highly recommended - This book is a must read for any football fan...there were things in here I never knew concerning the origins of the game of football and how great an athlete Jim Thorpe was...really shows and brings to light some negatives as well as positives of American culture as well as some dark times in the nations history as it concerns how a whole culture of people were treated versus how they should have been treated at the turn of the 20th Century...well written book...reads like a tragedy...I highly recommend! You will learn something when you finish this book...I appreciate the authors research and honesty in the subject matter...