Review of Courage Has No Color, the True Story of the Triple Nickles

Courage Has No ColorCourage Has No Color, the True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers
by Tanya Lee Stone
Middle School, High School    Candlewick    148 pp.
1/13    978-0-7636-5117-6    $24.99
e-book ed.  978-0-7636-6405-3    $24.99

“How does one survive and outlast the racism that was our daily fare at that time?” asks artist Ashley Bryan in the foreword to this fine work about the treatment of black soldiers during World War II. With the spectacular success of the Air Force’s Tuskegee Airmen, President Roosevelt ordered the formation of an all-black Army paratrooper unit, the 555th Parachute Infantry Company, nicknamed the Triple Nickles. But the Triple Nickles didn’t actually fight anywhere, as white soldiers didn’t want to fight alongside black soldiers. They weren’t allowed into restaurants and movie theaters, their housing was substandard, and they weren’t even given access to ammunition. Eventually, they put their training to use as smokejumpers in the forests of the western United States. Though they did help to pave the way for a more integrated military in later wars, their story in World War II was one of frustration. The book’s focus is wide: there are excellent sections on segregation and stereotypes in American history, Japanese American internment camps, Japanese balloon bombs, the Battle of the Bulge, and Operation Firefly, brought to life with archival photographs and Stone’s always clear prose. Readers may not find an exciting tale of wartime heroics here, but they will find a story of subtle forms of courage and unexpected ways soldiers can serve their country. Backmatter includes a timeline, chapter-by-chapter source notes, a bibliography, and an index.

From the January/February 2013 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

Dean Schneider

Dean Schneider teaches eighth grade English at the Ensworth School in Nashville, Tennessee.

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DESERAE

Courage has no color Have you ever wondered if the history you know today had a bigger meaning? Have you ever wish you could see it all with your own eyes? This is a true story that has multiple men life’s in it. A book that tells you how hard it was, and how much motivation these men had. It shows men that are colored can be as brave and devoted as white men. In the book, courage has no color, it’s about black and white men. No one wanted blacks working for them. They didn’t think blacks could do the work if not more than white men. These men worked together and formed a named called T.N, which means Triple Nickles. These men were fighting the most racist men in america,Adolf Hitler. The people of the society based color on a man ability. After a while men didn’t care about color. They needed employees really bad, so instead of putting whites only signs up. They put needed employees all color. I enjoyed reading this book. It was very touching. I believe this book would meet anyone goals. Courage has no color doesn’t just mean anything, it has different meaning to other people. It’s very sad to see how white men treated black men. How can you judge any man based on his color? Thought only God can judge. This book add so many things, so much knowledge to an human brain, if only people to listened. It tells us what men did, and hopefully to stop it in the future, but look around you, it’s still here. America have came a long way, but it isn’t getting any better. America is suppose to be free right? But we don’t have freedom. Look where most black people live,the ghetto. Black people have conquered almost if not every sport that white men thought blacks couldn’t do. People thought so low on blacks, and it still haven’t changed. Every race have come a long way, but one race got cut off, didn’t quite make it. Every men should have a chance, but do they? It took years for black and whites to even share the same water fountain, it seems to be that blacks were always at the bottom of the blacks. If you don’t believe what I am saying, answer these two questions, and think very hard before you believe you have the right answer. Would you like to be treated like blakes were in history, and or today?

Posted : Oct 28, 2016 06:43


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Posted : Mar 21, 2013 04:24

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Posted : Mar 21, 2013 04:24


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