Sheinkin provides an in-depth outsider view into Jim Thorpe's days at the Carlisle Indian School and the discovery of his athletic prowess. There's a brief introduction to Pop Warner (of the famed Pop Warner youth football leagues) and an introduction to the very beginnings of the game of American football. Sheinkin does not really address the racism prevalent at the school and the cruelties Thorpe and others suffered there.

Sheinkin is a master of narrative non-fiction for middle school and high school. This latest book is compelling reading.

I am a huge Sheinkin fan, so I was excited to get my hands on this book. My biggest complaint has way more to do with me than it does the book - I was not expecting him to go into such minute detail about the individual football games, and those passages dragged for me. However, I can see that being a selling point for someone who really enjoys football. I like the way Sheinkin laid out the separate narrative threads about Thorpe, Pop Wagner, and the Carlisle Indian School before pulling them all together. I also think he did a good job of highlighting the injustices of the Indian school system while maintaining a compelling story. He made we want to learn more about Thorpe, which is just about all you can ask of a biography. I look forward to sharing this with my students.

Let me start off by saying that this book is excellent. I am disappointed that I missed out on some things by reading an eARC on my Kindle ereader (all of the newspaper headlines were gibberish, and many of the photos and captions were split up oddly so they were hard to read). I hope to be able to at least flip through a print copy, because I want to see the final product.

That said, it took me a really long time to read because I'm not a football fan. I knew this was a football book going in, but I didn't expect so many details about the game. It's very interesting, because Jim Thorpe and his Carlisle teammates appear to have done much to evolve the game, but if you're not really into football it may be too much detail.

Thorpe's story is amazing and heartbreaking. Sheinkin also tells stories of many other major players in Carlisle history. Although the title is Thorpe, you walk away with knowledge of many other personalities in football history.

Sheinkin shows a bit of bias in this book with the language he uses, but I think it's eye-opening and may be a means to open discussion about racism and discrimination.

Overall, a very good read. Highly recommend for middle school and maybe high school, too.

Another winner from Steve Sheinkin. The author of Bomb: The race to build and steal the world's most dangerous weapon, The Port Chicago 50 : Disaster, mutiny, and the fight for civil rights, Lincoln's grave robbers, and Most dangerous : Daniel Ellsberg and the secret history of the Vietnam War is back as he delves into the history and oppression of Native Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century. It's equally the story of the earliest days of college football. The reader is introduced to the Carlisle Indian School and how it fits squarely into national and athletic history.

The reader will also meet the most well-known figures in Carlisle history - a coach known to millions of football-playing youngsters around the country and a man considered by sports writers to be the best athlete and the greatest American football player of the first half of the 20th century. These men, Glenn "Pop" Warner and Jim Thorpe, are legendary, and together they created an early collegiate football powerhouse at a school that exists only as a footnote in history.

Sheinkin, as usual, provides an engaging narrative and regales the reader with a multifaceted story. But what the author does best is to bring history into the present. Sure, facts about the early days of football and Thorpe's and Warner's accomplishments are fascinating and comprise a great story on their own, but Sheinkin resurrects the stories of Native Americans and the racism they faced - in many cases, the attempted erasure of Native American culture - and makes the reader consider how much - if at all - things have changed.

I don't know the person or event that will be Sheinkin's next focus, but I guarantee you that I'll be quick to read it, purchase it, and promote it among my students.