Bright Path: Young Jim Thorpe - Softcover

Brown, Don

3.76

63 ratings by Goodreads

9780312377489: Bright Path: Young Jim Thorpe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312377487 ISBN 13: 9780312377489

Publisher: Square Fish, 2008

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A Sac and Fox Indian, Jim Thorpe was born Wa-tho-huck ("Bright Path") in Oklahoma in 1888. His childhood was a mix of hard work on his family’s ranch, wild days hunting and living rough in the outdoors, and a succession of dreary, military-strict "Indian Schools" that sought to impose white culture on Indian children. Jim hated them and frequently ran away, but it was at one such school, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, that his life would change. Watching some student athletes practicing the high jump, Jim asked if he might try. Wearing overalls and a work shirt, he effortlessly cleared the bar on his first attempt—breaking the school’s high jump record. He was drafted onto the track and football teams by the school’s coach, Pop Warner, and went on to lead Carlisle to victories over the best college teams of the time. At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Thorpe won the five-event Pentathlon with a score that would never be beaten, and the even more grueling Decathlon with a score that stood for 20 years.

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About the Author:

Don Brown is the author and illustrator of more than a dozen picture-book biographies. His subjects have included explorers, scientists, astronauts, aviation pioneers, moviemakers, religious leaders, and many others. He lives with his family on Long Island, New York.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3–Born Wa-tho-huck (meaning Bright Path) in 1888, Thorpe preferred the open space of Oklahoma's prairies to the dreary Indian schools that his father believed provided the best opportunities for his son's future. Unhappy with the rigid lifestyle, Thorpe ran away again and again. Sent across the country to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, he found himself preparing for a career as a tailor. Athletics afforded him his only real happiness, and he discovered almost by accident his outstanding abilities in track and field. Brown uses prose and paint to show the significant childhood events leading to Thorpe's victories at the 1912 summer Olympics, where he was called the greatest athlete in the world by the king of Sweden. Done in watercolor and pencil, the cartoon-style illustrations convey a sense of motion and the delight Jim took in playing, running, and training. Color and lines contrast the freedom he felt on the Sac and Fox Indians' land with the confinement and conformity of school. A two-page author's note provides additional information. Joseph Bruchac's Jim Thorpe's Bright Path (Lee & Low, 2004) includes more details and realistic artwork, but Brown's book offers a well-organized and visually appealing introduction that is well suited to reading aloud.–Julie R. Ranelli, Kent Island Branch Library, Stevensville, MD
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