fantastic middle grade NF read about the famous fights between Max Schleming of Germany and Joe Louis of the USA primarily focusing on the years between.
The chapters alternate between each figure, tracing Schleming and Louis' trajectories from childhood up through the historic battle at Yankee Stadium.
The book includes wellchosen black and white photographs of both fighters' careers, Excellent book on the two fights between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling and how both men came to represent ideologies that rejected them as individuals while forcing them to champion all the worst impulses of the masses.
I can only imagine how Joe Lewis felt fighting for a country that still did not 'champion' his rights.
A powerful book that tells an important story, This one would be a,for me. I'm sure many older readers will have heard about this famous boxing match, but not know much about the story behind it, a gap filled by this account.
Carefully researched and balanced, this nonfiction title introduces readers to Joe Louis, who represented the American side, and Max Schmeling, a German who was seen as representing the Aryan race's superiority.
The authors are careful to provide plenty of background about the boxers and their careers as well as pointing out how these two men came to symbolize their nations during WWII.
It's hard not to see the irony in Louis fighting on behalf of a country where segregation still existed, and it is also fascinating to read about what happened after the fight with Schmeling returning home in ignominy but later owning a franchise for the CocaCola soft drink in Germany whereas Louis eventually suffered from paranoid delusions amid health and financial issues.
It's clear that the two authors loved writing this story, and I was delighted to see it told in an accessible format for teens in addition to containing abundant source material and photographs.
I felt as though I were actually sitting ringside during the descriptions of the boxing matches fought by both men.
June,. A boxing match that millions of people listened to on their radios, hoping their man would win, The American Joe Louis fought the German Max Schmeling, Oh, the weight that Louis and Schmeling each carried as they represented not only their respective countries but the ideals of those countries.
Add to that Joe Louis was a Black man living in the era of Jim Crow of the United States so the ideals that he held or represented were not fully lived out in the U.
S.
I couldn't put this book down, Florio amp Shapiro narrate the events leading up to the match, The chapters describing the match are gripping, I won't give away what happens There are also details about what happened to these men afterwards how they were involved in WWII and then their destinies beyond.
If you have a SPORTS/HISTORY BUFF IN YOUR CLASSROOM or know one, I'd recommend this book.
This book is also a worthy candidate of BOOK CLUB DISCUSSIONS, The authors' details about what happened after the ward reveal some irony, Schmeling who never "joined the Nazis" but also didn't stand up against them becomes well off and lives a distinguished life of sorts.
Louis, who gave up prime earning time, to join the military promote the war effort despite racism in the military becomes nearly penniless by his life's end.
Florio amp Shapiro provide the kind of details that are worthy of critical thinking and thoughtful conversations by our students, the kinds of details that can be used to think through questions like
"What would you be willing to do for your country despite X"
"How can believing in yourself benefit you and/or lead you astray"
"How do nonpolitical events become political"
"How does sports play a role in politics"
"How can fortunes 'turn on a dime'"
I'd recommend for grades.
PAIR THIS TEXT with Becoming Muhammad Ali by James Patterson amp Kwame Alexander, Compelling MG nonfiction that reads like a novel, An excellent nonfiction chapter book for middle grade readers mixing boxing legends and WWII, Fascinating!! Im not a big nonfiction reader, but this book was awesome, I love the way that it contrasted the backgrounds of the two fighters, how it used historical context to buildup to their fights in the ring, and I love the primary source images throughout! Such interesting angles of WWII.
I also found the stories of Max Schmelings interactions with Hitler so interesting, I would give this bookstars, I give it five because it was very well written, So interesting, love the compare and contrast of both men, great use of photographs to build context, This is a well researched nonfiction book about a very famous boxing match, While this book is mostly about the match between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, it also explains why this was so much more than a fight for the world heavyweight title.
I learned why Joe Louis and his successes were so important to black people in this country and ultimately why the LouisSchmeling match was so important to Americans of all races.
The book includes pictures and an extensive bibliography, This is middle grade nonfiction at its finest, See my soontobe published review
here in March:
sitelink com/LutaMnPbm Americas black boxing champion,
Hitlers favorite athlete.
And a world at war,
Joe Louis was born in a sharecroppers shack in Alabama and raised in a tenement in Detroit.
Max Schmeling grew up in cramped fifthfloor apartment in Hamburg, Germany, For both boys, boxing was a way out and a way up, Little did they know that someday they would face each other in a pair of battles that would capture the imagination of the world.
In America, Joe was a symbol of hope, especially to blacks yearning to participate in the American dream.
In Germany, Max was made to symbolize the superiority of the Aryan race, The two men climbed through the ropes with the weight of their countries on their shouldersand only one would leave victorious.
The battles waged between Joe and Max still resonate today, War in the Ring is the story of these two outsized heroes, their lives, their careers, and the global conflict swirling around them.
I've heard of this famous boxing match all my life, but I knew little about it, Admittedly, my knowledge of boxing in general can fit on the head of a pin, But I knew this one was famousan AfricanAmerican boxer beating a Nazi sympathizer at the outset of WWII is pretty easy metaphoric material.
This book does a great job of giving background info on both Joe Louis and also Max Schmeling.
Neither was a saint or a devilboth pretty human, As with most boxers, they both were not privileged at all growing up and diligence, hard work, and persistence paid off for both.
And yet neither's life turned out wonderfully well, Both struggled in their later years, It's interesting to get such a full look at these lives, of which most people, if they know of them, only know of a few hours.
It truly makes them come to life, And it's nice to have a book give an ancillary WWII story, fleshing out that conflict in a more complicated way than how it's often presented to audiences this age.
John Florio was raised in Flushing, NY, He credits the streets of Queens as one of his earliest influences, along with black and white movies, old superhero comics, Sports Illustrated, Humphrey Bogart, and the Hardy Boys.
A fan of pop fiction and creative nonfiction, Florio is the author of the historical crime novels, Sugar Pop Moon and Blind Moon Alley.
With Ouisie Shapiro, he has written the nonfiction books: Doomed, War in the Ring, One Nation Under Baseball, and One Punch from the Promised Land.
Florio and Shapiro also contribute to The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Nation, and ESPN.
Florio holds an MFA from the University of Southern Maine, an MA from New York University, an MBA from St.
Johns University, and he is John Florio was raised in Flushing, NY, He credits the streets of Queens as one of his earliest influences, along with black and white movies, old superhero comics, Sports Illustrated, Humphrey Bogart, and the Hardy Boys.
A fan of pop fiction and creative nonfiction, Florio is the author of the historical crime novels, Sugar Pop Moon and Blind Moon Alley.
With Ouisie Shapiro, he has written the nonfiction books: Doomed, War in the Ring, One Nation Under Baseball, and One Punch from the Promised Land.
Florio and Shapiro also contribute to The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Nation, and ESPN.
Florio holds an MFA from the University of Southern Maine, an MA from New York University, an MBA from St.
Johns University, and he is pursing a DFA at the University of Glasgow, He currently serves on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA creative writing program at the University of Southern Maine.
Visit John Florio at johnfloriowriter, com. sitelink.