Product Description

Jim Thorpe was one of the greatest athletes who ever lived. He played professional football, Major League Baseball, and won Olympic gold medals in track & field. But his life wasn’t an easy one. Born on the Sac and Fox Reservation in 1887, he encountered much family tragedy, and was sent as a young boy to various Indian boarding schools—strict, cold institutions that didn’t allow their students to hold on to their Native American languages and traditions. Jim ran away from school many times, until he found his calling at Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Indian School. There, the now-legendary coach Pop Warner recognized Jim’s athletic excellence and welcomed him onto the football and track teams.

Focusing on Jim Thorpe’s years at Carlisle, this book brings his early athletic career—and especially his college football days—to life, while also dispelling some myths about him and movingly depicting the Native American experience at the turn of the twentieth century. This is a book for history buffs as well as sports fans—an illuminating and lively read about a truly great American.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #830015 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780803731189
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9–A fictionalized biography. Thorpe spent his life running–running away from school, running on the baseball diamond, running the football, or running to win both the pentathlon and the decathlon in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. His accomplishments, his kindness and consideration of others, his defeats, and his exploitation are related in first-person narration, from his childhood on an Oklahoma reservation to the loss of his Olympic medals for playing on a professional minor-league baseball team. Readers learn about his athletic performances (some related play by play), his triumphs, his friendships, and his hardships through the use of dialogue and description. The trust that Thorpe had in others and his own perseverance show both his personal weaknesses and strengths. While the writing is accessible, Bruchac's use of the first person is likely to mislead or confuse readers. Twelve poor-quality, black-and-white photographs document the subject's time at Carlisle Indian Industrial School and show him receiving the gold medal for the pentathlon from King Gustav V of Sweden.–Janice C. Hayes, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 6-9. Bruchac expands his Jim Thorpe's Bright Path (2004) into a full-length biopic--or at least the literary equivalent. Casting the narrative into the first person but sticking closely to documentary sources for people, incidents, and even dialogue, he details Thorpe's stellar amateur career in track, baseball, football, and the Olympics, along with the young athlete's repeated run-ins with hostile (and sometimes corrupt) officials and the harsh conditions he and his classmates endured at several Indian schools. In addition, as Thorpe played football for Carlyle's brilliant coach "Pop" Warner, readers will find fascinating glimpses of the game in its formative years. Relating his feats in matter-of-fact, never boastful tones, Thorpe demonstrates a peaceable, team-minded spirit, a solid work ethic (a persistent reputation to the contrary notwithstanding), and an occasional stubborn streak, but never a trace of bitterness or anger. As in many other, more conventional biographies, he comes across as both a hero and an unexcelled role model. For readers wishing to know more about Thorpe's professional career and later life, Bruchac supplies a long afterword and an annotated resource list. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“The novel is a superb blend of fiction and nonfiction, rooted in the author’s usual careful research.” —Kirkus Reviews

Customer Reviews

Great Book!
This book is written at a junior high level, but the topic and writing are captivating for adults to read as well as kids at the junior high level. Unlike other books about Jim Thorpe, this book takes the reader on a journey through what every day life could have been like for Jim Thorpe from childhood through his early adulthood. Jim Thorpe is a great role model for everyone, and this book is a great introduction to his life.