Bound To Stay Bound

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 Undefeated : Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School football team
 Author: Sheinkin, Steve

 Publisher:  Roaring Brook Press (2017)

 Dewey: 796.332
 Classification: Biography
 Physical Description: 280 p., ill., 23 cm

 BTSB No: 809570 ISBN: 9781596439542
 Ages: 10-14 Grades: 5-9

 Subjects:
 Thorpe, Jim, -- 1887-1953
 Warner, Glenn S. -- (Glenn Scobey), -- 1871-1954
 United States Indian School (Carlisle, Pa.) -- Football

Price: $6.50

Summary:
A great American sport and Native American history come together in this true story of how Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner created the legendary Carlisle Indians football team.

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Accelerated Reader Information:
   Interest Level: UG
   Reading Level: 6.80
   Points: 9.0   Quiz: 186921
Reading Counts Information:
   Interest Level: 6-8
   Reading Level: 8.30
   Points: 14.0   Quiz: 70251

Reviews:
   Kirkus Reviews (+) (11/15/16)
   School Library Journal (+) (02/01/17)
   Booklist (+) (12/01/16)
 The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (01/17)
 The Hornbook (+) (00/03/17)

Full Text Reviews:

Bulletin for the Center... - 01/01/2017 It takes an ambitious, sprawling biography to do justice to the multifaceted career of early twentieth-century sportsman Jim Thorpe, whose accomplishments cannot be fully appreciated without examining the educational system focused on forced assimilation of Native children, under which Thorpe came of age. Here Sheinkin concentrates on Thorpe’s years at the Carlisle Indian School, during which time both Thorpe and Carlisle became sports luminaries as football itself evolved rapidly into a semblance of the game we recognize today. Sheinkin attempts to converge several threads of the Thorpe/Carlisle story, switching between background on Carlisle’s developing football program, Glenn “Pop” Warner’s backstory and involvement in coaching and recruiting, and Thorpe’s tenure as restless, uncommitted student and football hero. Laying groundwork and inserting additional information ranging from Thorpe family history to the harsh philosophy behind Richard Henry Pratt’s approach to breaking his students’ cultural ties takes plenty of page space, and the full-blown football action doesn’t arrive until the book’s second half, where readers who prefer sports history to American history will enjoy the payoff. Photographs, notes, an extensive works cited list, and an index will support student research, but kids who skim the table of contents for game highlights will be equally pleased. EB - Copyright 2017 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Booklist - 12/01/2016 *Starred Review* Though arguably best remembered as a supremely gifted track-and-field star, Native American Jim Thorpe was also a preternaturally gifted football player, as the award-winning Sheinkin demonstrates in this biography of the sports phenomenon. Sharing the stage is Pop Warner, the man who would ultimately become his coach at Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Indian Industrial School. The first part of the book is devoted to biographical material about Thorpe and Warner and colorful contextual information about Carlisle, its football team, and the state of the sport at the time (i.e., the early years of the twentieth century). With that established, the book hits its stride as Thorpe arrives at Carlisle and meets Warner. The result is history. Though never a good or willing student, Thorpe—between his prowess on the football field and his triumphs at the 1912 Olympics—became, as Sheinkin ­succinctly puts it, “the best athlete on the planet.” He evidences this with stirring accounts of Thorpe’s games, especially his white-knuckle coverage of a symbolically important 1912 matchup with Army. But even better are the psychological insights he offers into Thorpe’s character. Containing a generous collection of black-and-white period photographs, this is a model of research and documentation, as well as of stylish writing that tells an always absorbing story. - Copyright 2016 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2017 Gr 6 Up—Proclaimed "the greatest all-around athlete in the world" by legendary football coach Glenn "Pop" Warner, Jim Thorpe dominated sports in the early 1900s. His natural athleticism, in tandem with Warner's innovative coaching style, helped establish the Carlisle Indian Industrial School's football program as one of the nation's best, eclipsing perennial gridiron powerhouses Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Despite the fame and attention Carlisle received because of its winning team, a stark reality existed: the cultures of these same young men were being systematically eradicated by the school (e.g., prohibiting students from speaking Native languages, forcing them to cut their hair). Operating under the premise that the "Indian problem" could be solved by stripping students of their cultural identities, Carlisle founder and superintendent Richard Henry Pratt, a U.S. Army captain, vowed to "Kill the Indian; Save the Man" through any means necessary. Sheinkin has created a rich, complex narrative that balances the institutionalized bigotry and racism of the times with the human-interest stories that are often overshadowed by or lost to history. Within this framework, he brings to life the complicated, sometimes contentious relationship between a coach and a star athlete, their rise to glory, and the legacies they left behind. VERDICT A thoroughly engrossing and extensively researched examination of football's first "all-American." Highly recommended for U.S. history collections.—Audrey Sumser, Kent State University at Tuscarawas, New Philadelphia, OH - Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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