Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, Americas First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone

Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, Americas First Black Paratroopers Reviews

• 
  Deacon Tom F

  Superb book. It was painful to read about the prejudice against black solders. It was beyond spectacular to read how these professionals overcame all to become a powerful fighting force in WWII.
  
  This is a good one.
• 
  Betsy

  If I were able to sit down with my small, childhood self to render advice about the world, I’d probably just hand myself a series of thoughts about subjects I was forced to learn about in school. For example, I would probably mention right off the bat that though my textbooks made it infinitely clear that American history consists only of a series of distinct separate moments in time (Pilgrims, Colonial American, Revolutionary War, etc. etc.) history is not a static thing. We are always learning more. Heck, there are elements and angles to it that go well and truly beyond what they’re able to cover in school. So those kids that once only ever learned about Ellis Island are now learning and hearing about
  Angel Island as well. We might learn about the accomplishments of our Founding Fathers, but we’re finally getting a better sense of the fact that
  they were slaveholders as well. And then there’s WWII. I don’t know about you, but usually my history class sort of raced over WWII when we learned about it. You had your Allied Forces, Hitler, Pearl Harbor, atom bomb, and that was that. So in the midst of all this I can be nothing but pleased with Tanya Lee Stone’s Courage Has No Color. Having already established herself as capable of giving voice to missed historical opportunities, Stone turns her attention to a core group of brave professionals that risked everything and managed to do a great deal of good in spite of the obstacles they encountered along the way.
  
  The history of African-Americans serving in the military has always had its pitfalls and problems. Yet one of the stories too little known concerns The Triple Nickles and their work during the war years. In 1943 Walter Morris, a black serviceman in charge of an African-American unit, could see that his troop’s morale was dangerously low. In light of this he got permission to train his men the same way the white paratroopers at Fort Benning, GA were being trained. In time, their work paid off and President Roosevelt’s order to create an all-black paratrooper unit fell on them. All would have been right as rain but instead of being sent into battle they were instead told to fight fires on the west coast. Little did they suspect that this seeming busywork was actually fighting an enemy closer at hand than anyone had ever suspected. Peppered with art from artist and serviceman Ashley Bryan, Stone’s book takes its cues from original primary sources, interviews with the subjects themselves, and produces one of the finest looks into these heroes too little lauded in their day.
  
  It’s not entirely facetious to say that Stone distinguishes herself by specializing in the art of the unfulfilled. Put another way, how on earth does one go about writing about dashed dreams and promises that never came to be without writing a narrative dipped up to its ears in depression? Courage Has No Color is hardly the first book for young people about military groups of black individuals that faced prejudice both on and off the battlefield.
  The Harlem Hellfighters When Pride Met Courage and
  Unsung Heroes of World War II The Story of the Navajo Code Talkers both immediately come to mind. What distinguishes The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion is that they were never given a chance to perform in battle. Much like the women of her
  Almost Astronauts, these men trained and were denied their moment of glory. But rather than make this book a depressing account of what these men didn’t get a chance to do, Stone takes the time to instead show everything that they accomplished in the course of their lives. Not just their work as fire fighters, but also how their sacrifice paved the way for future battalions and future paratroopers.
  
  When I tell people that the bulk of my historical knowledge comes from all the children’s books I read, I’m not really kidding. I kind of wish I was, of course, since books for kids can only cover a very limited slice of any given historical moment. That probably accounts for why I like works for kids to do their own research. Once in a great while you’ll encounter a nonfiction book for kids that produces information you simply cannot find in titles for adults. Stone’s book probably counts for this. As she says in her backmatter, “Tiny bits and pieces of this story have been scattered in obscure places for decades. There have been articles written about the Triple Nickles, as well as one slim book by Bradley Biggs, which is primarily an autobiographical perspective, but putting all the events, perspectives, and the complete story together in historical context has never been done.” The end result is a series of personal narratives that will be much desired in this age of Common Core learning. Not only that, Stone also works in facts and elements to this book that until very recently went unknown. I’ll confess that I first heard about the Japanese balloon bombs in the middle grade novel
  Jump Into the Sky by Shelley Pearsall (a great fiction companion to this book) but it took Stone writing about them in Courage Has No Color to really get me to believe.
  
  Says Stone of herself in this book’s little biographical section, “One of my goals is to help fill in some of the missing pieces in the fabric of our history and encourage readers to think not only about what happens, but the how and why it all unfolds the way it does.” Our nonfiction authors can only give our history meaning if they have the talent and scope to do so. When I was a child I remember my mom telling me that while in hindsight significant moments in history might seem obvious, to the people living those moments it’s never quite so clear. Stone’s great strength lies in her ability to cull a narrative from seemingly disparate elements. These weren’t everyday heroes. These were real men, denied their chances to prove their worth. And yet, they proved themselves in other ways. Consider this a fine bit of research and history that deserves praise and honors galore. Well played, Stone. Well played.
  
  For ages 9 and up.
  
• 
  Dj

  Courage has no Color.
  
  
  When I was looking through a bunch of WWII books I came across one that talked about the 555th Parachute Battalion. I was surprised because I had never heard of this unit before. Now I am not going to say that I know every Battalion designation of the War but in a time of military segregation a unit of this type would be memorable. So I started reading this book, wondering what combat this unit fought in and how I had missed such a thing. What I found out was that they hadn't fought in any 'combat' during WWII. While that was a minor disappointment, it was the only one that the book offered up.
  
  The book flows through the creation of the Battalion and the obstacles it had to overcome to even make it that far. While it focuses on the prejudices and racism that the 555th had to face it does look at other Black Units that were being created at or about the same time. It also looks at the polices of the Army and why they were changed and who were the driving force behind the changes and who was holding it up. While it isn't really part of the key subject of the book it takes a brief time looking at the issue of racism in relation to Japanese Americans as well.
  
  While the 555th never actually saw combat as a unit, it did do something that in many ways was much more fundamental in regards to the war effort. A mission that they were told was secret, but when they arrived in Pendelton Oregon, seemed to be known by everyone, since it had been published in the New York Times. The 555th became one of the first Fire Jumping Units in the Pacific Northwest. While the book talks the economics of the great forests that covered a large proportion of Washington, Oregon and Northern California and it talks about the threat of the Japanese Balloon Bombs, it doesn't really look at how important those forests were to the war effort itself. It may seem unlikely now, but during World War II, the flight decks of the Fleet Carriers was made of wood planking. Even the decks of some ships, like the Iowa class Battleships, had a great deal of wood. Much of the wood used on these Naval Warships came from the Pacific Northwest.
  
  As Fire Jumpers, the 555th was responsible for many of the early developments of equipment and methods used to combat large scale forest fires even to this day.
  
  Shortly after World War II, the 555th became one of the Armies first integrated units, when it was rolled into the 82nd Airborne under the auspices of James Gavin. Gavin didn't just have them separated from the rest of the Division, he had them staying in the same barracks as the other troopers and took some of the Officers from the 555th and put them in positions of command throughout the Division.
  
  The Author does a good job of following certain individuals from the start of the unit, telling how they entered the army, how they did in the Unit and what happened to them after the war. A compelling if not a story told in great depth. This is a very good book to help come to an understanding of what it was like to be a solider on the outside looking in.
• 
  Penny Peck

  If your tween or teen likes "Saving Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers," this is a great book to recommend (and it also fits the Common Core curriculum with primary sources, etc.). Many people have heard of the Tuskegee Airmen, but few have heard of this group of African-American paratroopers, nicknamed the Triple Nickles. With expansive b&w photos on nearly every page, and plenty of back-matter and sidebars that describe the Jim Crow aspect of American life (including popular culture), this will please both casual readers as well as report-writers. Even adults will enjoy this look at an under-represented aspect of WWII history.
• 
  Emily

  I grabbed both of this week's SYNC offerings, but I have to admit to being underwhelmed by this one. Given the publication date, the age of the story, and the scant contemporary public information about the Triple Nickles, Stone had to stitch her narrative together from disparate pieces, and it shows. My eyebrows shot up when I realized that she was quoting a section of Isabel Wilkerson's
  The Warmth of Other Suns. Find your own primary sources, lady. I think if this was an area of history I read less in, I would have been less annoyed, but there are so many WWII books and books about the Black experience in the United States, and this book really didn't add anything new to those fields, but rather took from that vast pool to fill in gaps in her own story. If you were to strip out all the pieces she adds for context, there'd be a scant few pages on the Triple Nickles themselves. Write a magazine article.
  
  If this one of the first things you've ever read about this topic or if you're in the recommended age group, add a star.
• 
  Alyssa Heun

  I found out about this book in class where a book recommendation was given to me. This book is the winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work- Youth/Teens, Pennsylvania Young Reader’ Choice Award Nominee for Grades 6-8 (2016), YALSA Award Award Nominee for Excellence in Nonfiction (2014), and the NCTE Orbis Picture Honor Book (2014). The author is also a Sibert Medal winner.
  
  Walter Morris was the first sergeant in charge of the Service Company of The Parachute School in Fort Bennington, Georgia. While white parachutists were training, the black men were servicemen. Their job duties entailed guarding the facilities. The men of Fort Benning had low morale due to the black men not getting duties that mattered when in the Army. Walter Morris saw this and knew he needed to do something. He knew his men were just as skilled as the white men. Morris got the idea to try to form a black paratrooper group, which had never been formed before. He succeeded where training began having 20 black soldiers go through the program. His men finally felt as if they had a place in the Army. They were called the Triple Nickles, the 555th. The reader follows this group of men as they prove to be just as great as the white men in their duties as paratroopers. They were successful and worked hard. The book gives in depth detail of their combat training, how they trained and the steps they took to learn how to paratroop, and how this group of men completed smokejumper training to put out fires in the West. The author does a thorough, well-done job of bringing us through their training and the history of their experiences, as well as, the history that was going around them in the world.
  
  Before we learn about the paratroopers in the book, the author gives background knowledge of the war, segregation that was occurring during the 1940s and important people who made a difference. Important people that were touched upon in the book include: Eleanor Roosevelt, the NAACP, and the Committee for the Participation of Negroes in National Defense. The book gives a timeline from the beginning of the war towards the war winding down. The book also gives history on the attack on Pearl Harbor and attacks from Japan. Despite their training as parachute jumpers, the 555th were put on a mission to be smokejumpers in Oregon and California.
  
  Themes of loyalty to our country and passion to continue fighting for our country despite prejudices were found in this book. The book includes real pictures depicting events that the author was talking about in each chapter, helping the reader understand more about the information that they are reading. Along with this, are propaganda pictures and cartoons. There are also close-ups of the men that are discussed in the book. The book has strong captions that allow for more history to be learned. Some chapters in the book just have pictures and captions across both pages.
  
  Despite the black soldiers hard work and determination, these soldiers were still discriminated against, “They had to prove to the world that they had bravery and skill it took to succeed, and they had to do it while not reacting to the prejudice they ran into around every corner” (p. 44). This quote stood out to me because these black men had such courage to fight for our country even when our country was not on their side. This quote brought up a lot of feelings for me as I was reading and it was a good idea for the author to include to be able to perceive what the soldiers were going through during this time period.
  
  This book would be good to utilize in the classroom by incorporating it with a transportation unit for students to understand parachuting. Around Veterans Day, this book could be read to talk about the Army, the different divisions, and more history on World War II. Also, this nonfiction book could be paired with other fictional books on the time period of World War II. Another idea would be to compare and contrast another time period that has been read about previously with this book’s time period. It is a higher level book, more suitable for students in the middle grades, starting in sixth grade. Upper elementary students could certainly read and use this book, but teacher guidance would be needed.
  
• 
  Fran

  Wonderfully written and well researched. From start to finish it's a story of hope, endurance and the spirit of humankind. Truly awesome. Highly recommend.
• 
  Richie Partington

  Richie’s Picks: COURAGE HAS NO COLOR: THE TRUE STORY OF THE TRIPLE NICKLES, AMERICA’S FIRST BLACK PARATROOPERS by Tanya Lee Stone, Candlewick, January 2013, 160p., ISBN: 978-0-7636-5117-6
  
  It’s like manna from the gods: just as some crazy dude prepares to drop 24 miles in a spacesuit and a parachute, the mailman delivers me a crazy great book about groundbreaking black paratroopers in WWII.
  
  The author gets us into this story in a hurry by providing a reader’s step-by-step experience of suiting up and jumping out of a plane. Then she moves on to a historic story which – to me – is one more of those stories about the historic stupidity of this country.
  
  “Said he was fighting on arrival, fighting for survival
  Said he was a buffalo soldier, win the war for America”
  -- Bob Marley and “King Sporty” Williams
  
  Clarence Beaver:
  “We wanted to be a full partner within the war. We did not want to go through the war saying ‘I washed the dishes’…I had a grandfather who ran away from his master as a slave and joined the Union Army and fought as a soldier in the Union Army. And here I am coming down almost a hundred years later and I cannot even fight in a war that’s about to eat up the whole world.’”
  
  As we learn in COURAGE HAS NO COLOR, at the onset of America’s participation in WWII, black soldiers were kept segregated and the overwhelming majority of them were limited to non-combat service duties. This did not make much sense – the idea that America was fighting fascism with a racist military. But thanks to FLOTUS (as we see it abbreviated these days) Eleanor Roosevelt getting involved, change was in the air.
  
  Meanwhile, while heading up a segregated unit on a segregated base, First Sergeant Walter Morris was looking to “wipe out the idea that black men weren’t good enough or smart enough to jump out of airplanes. He wanted his soldiers to know that they were as up to the task as anyone else.”
  
  And so Walter Morris began watching the white paratrooper students on the base going through their training routines and then had his black soldiers mimicking that training after the whites were done for the day. This initiative on Morris’s part, to keep up the morale of his fellow black soldiers, turned out to be a brilliant strategy. His timing was perfect. A general learned what he was up to and immediately appointed him to the just-about-to-be-formed all-black 555th Parachute Infantry Company.
  
  Author Tanya Lee Stone augments her thorough research of the Triple Nickles through conversations with some of the original members including Walter Morris and Clarence Beaver. We see all of the positive change that happens…and (sadly) all of the positive change that doesn’t happen:
  
  “At his own post, while training to be a paratrooper, Morris experienced the sting of seeing German and Italian prisoners of war buying cigarettes and candy at the post exchange. ‘Those men,’ he later recalled, ‘prisoners who killed American soldiers…[could] buy cigarettes or whatever they wanted to, but we…couldn’t go into the post exchange.’ He also remembered watching the prisoners ‘sitting down at the same table with the white soldiers, drinking Cokes, and smoking and having a good time…We’re in uniform, but we’re not good enough to sit at the table with the prisoners of war!’”
  
  Despite facing such racist attitudes, they all get through their training, get all psyched up to go fight Hitler, and get deployed…to Oregon!
  
  In tale after tale, detail after detail, we learn about those ignorant attitudes that permeated the United States military and caused these men and other blacks in the military to be treated in such an offensive manner by military and civilian populations.
  
  And while I do not believe that this embarrassing look at America is the real point of her story – it is, instead, a positive look at forward movement -- I cannot get past the desire to round up a bunch of the so-called leaders responsible for this ridiculous state of affairs and throw them all out of an airplane – without a parachute.
  
  Fortunately, the stellar performance of the Triple Nickles and other black units in WWII helped foster the Civil Rights Movement. Fortunately, things did continue to change for the better. And fortunately we get to read about these very cool guys whose positive attitude and demeanor played a role in that change.
  
  Richie Partington, MLIS
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• 
  Barb Middleton

  This emotional story had me in a free fall from start to end. Tension is inherent when covering black history, but when you throw in jumping out of an airplane to a reader like myself who is afraid of heights, the result is a confetti of fingernails in my reading chair. The Triple Nickles were the first trained black paratroopers during the 1940's under Sergeant Walter Morris. Originally, Morris was in charge of 20 men who were guarding The Parachute School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He noticed that his men were not proud of their work so he began training them in a calisthenics routine that was the same as the white soldiers. His men responded by feeling valued and started "acting like soldiers." General Gaither noticed and called Morris into his office where Morris learned of Gaither's order to create an all-black unit of paratroopers, the 555th Parachute Infantry Company. Morris was assigned the task, and excelled as a leader in both training and mental toughness against prejudices.
  
  It wasn't easy. Morris was breaking new ground. His men were isolated and denied basic rights such as where to sit in the cafeteria, on the bus, going to the canteen, going to the post's theater, and more. Even prisoners of war were not denied these rights. The black paratroopers did comment that their white instructors, who were from the South, did not express prejudices toward them and showed them respect. The author addresses why these black men decided to fight for a country that would not claim them as their own. The men said that they wanted to prove they could succeed by not reacting to prejudices. Succeed, they did and those that weren't prejudice took note helping to change popular opinions on the black man's plight.
  
  
  
  They also succeeded in raising American conscientiousness. America was fighting in a war against the genocidal racist, Hitler, while on their own soil they had a culture of black discrimination. World War II was a turning point in popular views advocating for African-Americans human rights. Unfortunately, even today there is still discrimination, as the author notes, found in popular movies made on history of World War II where blacks are not given credit for their military service. For instance, the movie "Saving Private Ryan," doesn't give credit to the all-black unit that was critical to saving a group of white men surrounded in a German town.
  
  This informational text is pretty straightforward with photos, chapter headings, subheadings and a one-sentence summary pulled out of the text and put in bold. The addition of primary advertisements and cartoons enrich the reading experience immensely. I particularly enjoyed them. I actually wanted more ancillary text like that. The Japanese balloon story was fascinating. How the heck have I not heard about it before! I would have liked a side bar on it. I also liked the additional information the author puts in the end titled, "The Story Within the Story," but I would have liked it inserted where the text was that covered the three paratroopers who dropped out. What I'm not sure is if this is a decision made by the author or if it is a decision made by the publisher. The title bothered me too. (*spoiler - don't read the following) I kept waiting for them to go into combat and when they don't, I felt letdown. I'm not sure how it could have been done differently. (end spoiler) Either way, this is a well-told story that is worth reading.
  
  
• 
  Alex Baugh

  I first heard about the Triple Nickles when I read the book Jump into the Sky by Shelly Pearsall, the story of a young African American boy whose father was a paratrooper in 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, or the Triple Nickles.
  
  Now, Tanya Lee Stone's Courage Has No Color tells the true story of the Triple Nickels, America's first and only all black unit of paratroopers in World War II. She begins their story by describing in graphic detail what it feels like to jump out of an airplane and parachute back to earth, to give you an idea of the level of courage it takes to be a paratrooper. It is not something I think I would want to ever do.
  
  From there she writes about the kind of treatment black soldiers received in the military: segregated and relegated to service work and treated like servants. It was demeaning and demoralizing to the men who joined the military to fight for their country and freedom. One man, Walter Morris, a first sergeant in charge of Service Company of The Parachute School, saw how being treated like servants was affecting the men serving under him. Morris devised a plan to teach his men how to feel like soldiers again. It was his plan to teach them what they needed to know to become paratroopers. And so after the white serviceman were finished practicing for the day, and the black servicemen arrived to start cleaning up after them, they also began their training. And someone noticed how well they learned what was needed to become a successful paratrooper. Pretty soon, the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, long a proponent of equality, got into the act.
  
  In 1941, The 99th Pursuit Squadron, or the Tuskegee Airmen, was formed and the men trained to be the country's first African American aviators. And in 1943, these airmen were finally sent into combat overseas. But the 555th Paratrooper Infantry Battalion was finally formed in February 1943. Though trained as paratroopers, the Triple Nickles would never be used in combat, instead they were sent to Oregon to fight fires. Turns out those fires were started by balloons sent over by Japan for that very purpose.
  
  All of this and much more about the people and history of the 555th is detailed in Courage Has No Color, including an in-depth explanation of how they got their name - yes, there more to it than just 555. It is a fascinating book covering this little known aspect of the United States military and World War II and an exceptional contribute to the history of African Americans in this country.
  
  Stone has done an exemplary job of gathering primary source material, including interviews with some the of members of the 555th and lots of archival photographs, to bring to life the courage and heroism of these men and their accomplishments even against all odds. Included is a very eyeopening timeline of the desegregation and the Triple Nickles,
  
  Sadly, the United States Military was not desegregated until 1950.
  
  This book is recommended for readers age 10+
  This book was obtained from the publisher
  
• 
  Vera Godley

  The era of World War II brought out the best in men and gave them strength, endurance, intelligence, cunning, fortitude, and love of country. It brought out these things in men of every color: Caucasian (white), Negro (black), Asian (yellow-with the "face" of the enemy), and red (Indian). The book Courage Has No Color is primarily about the desire that men of color had to serve this nation which they loved by fighting the enemy. And the color which Courage Has No Color primarily records is that of the black American - the Negro. (I realize that to some the term Negro is not considered a good descriptive term, but I was taught that Negro was what Africans of black or brown skin were - it was their race per say. So when I use the word Negro, it is with respect for the race of those whose skin is brown or black.)
  
  While the military of America did have Negros serving, it was not as combatants. It was more the positions of guards, cooks, cleaners, etc. True, someone has to do those things, but some of the men of color desired to actually fight the enemy, and Courage Has No Color is the story of how a few brave men of color pursued opportunities to become fighting soldiers. This took the form of gradually putting together the first group: the Triple Nickles as they were called. Once they were actually beginning to train and did become paratroopers, it grieved them to see that they still had segregated eating, sleeping, and clubs. They actually saw that prisoners of war were allowed to sit at the same tables as the white soldiers while they, the soldiers of color, were not. They had to endure the ridicule of the prisoners of war who taunted them because even though they were uniformed soldiers, they still had to ride at the back of the bus while the prisoners rode up front.
  
  The desecration and integration of the military, though slow, in World War II is a significant part of military and also of civil rights history. The author has presented a well documented piece of history with a lot of pictures that tell the story. The story also brings home a strong point that America was fighting racism, fascism, and human rights issues abroad but needed to address the issue of racism and rights here on the home front.
  
  DISCLOSURE: I was provided a complimentary copy by the publisher, Candlewick Press, on behalf of the author, Tanya Stone, in exchange for my honest review. Opinions are solely my own.
• 
  Joan

  This is yet another excellent book by Tanya Lee Stone. This time she resurrects the "Triple Nickels" paratrooper section in the armed forces. They were the first Black paratroopers and all were quite aware of their double mission to fight Hitler (which they did, very indirectly, as fire jumpers) and to advance acceptance of Blacks in the armed forces. This acceptance led to the roots of the civil right movement when you had men who had fought as equals in war expected to accept inequality at home. Needless to say, they didn't accept it. They were a superior force even among the elite WWII armed forces and proud of it and what they gave to the United States in terms of getting equality towards all. Interestingly, this book started as a picture book until editors at Candlewick convinced a resistant Stone to turn it into a nonfiction narrative with lots of photographs. It seems to me that was a correct call, because I don't think I would have understood the impact of many of these photos without a detailed narrative accompanying them. It is rather fascinating as a librarian to discover Ashley Bryan's work included in this book. Who knew he had served in WWII?? I love the way Stone keeps finding little unknown bits of history to show kids today just how similar most people are in many ways. Mind you, I am not saying people could have been similar to these amazing paratroopers. What they went through, both physically and mentally, was close to the true meaning of the word unique. I appreciated Stone pointing out that these brave soldiers had to watch prisoners of war eating and having recreation in places they weren't welcome to be in. Yes, some of our solders were treated much worse than prisoners of war were: captured soldiers who had been fighting our brave soldiers!
  
  The way Stone manages to mix traditional research with interviews with the few left from the original triple nickel unit and discovery of photos to bring this story to life is worth being included in any research unit. This is an exemplary example of research done absolutely right.
• 
  Peregrine 12

  I learned a lot of new facts from this book, despite the book being written for a young audience (middle to high school age). The photographs were wonderful, as was the topic of black soldiers in WWII. I've read books similar to this one - the same topic of African-Americans in US military history - and am always shocked at how blatantly the soldiers were pushed aside and ignored once the crisis was over.
  
  I particularly appreciate the author's handling of the topic of racial discrimination and her emphasis on the idea that progress is being made. She quotes one of the Triple Nickels, now 91 years old, as saying that one day America will, finally, reach a colorless society where courage and honor is what counts most.
  
  I was particularly unhappy with the fact, as pointed out by the author, that Spielberg did not portray the black platoon at D-Day in his film 'Saving Private Ryan.' I had no idea there were black soldiers in that invasion - did Spielberg? I wonder. Man, that would have been a great addition to his film.
  
  The section on the Japanese balloon bombs was the first time I'd ever read of this, though I had heard about it, and author Stone is the first person I know of to show photographs of them. Bravo, Mrs Stone.
• 
  Edie

  Tanya Lee Stone is a careful researcher and the details of this book and "serious" end pages prove that point. And who knew about the Triple Nickles, America's first black paratroopers who experienced all of the prejudice and ill treatment of the Tuskegee Airmen but whose story has not bee told. Lots of photographs add to the telling and the details of the hard work and ill treatment will both incense you and make you realize just how heroic these young men were, to persevere in the face of the injustice. Who knew the Dwight D. Eistenhower "refused" to sign the citation to give the black unit the Distinguished Unit Citation after their role in the Battle of the Bulge. And who knew that these highly trained men were sent to be Smoke-jumpers in place of going into battle. An engrossing book and a story that needed to be told. An interesting addition, the illustrations and comments by Ashely Bryan, himself a victim of racial prejudice during his military service.
• 
  Brenda Kahn

  I was not unaware of the racism in the military, of the segregation and marginalization of black troops, but Tanya Lee Stone's narrative lays it out painfully and clearly. Made me appreciate the courage of each and every person who stood up against it in large ways and small. I've had the book on my shelf since it pubbed, but chose to listen first in order to focus on the narrative without the distraction of the photos. Afterward, I leafed through the beautifully designed book, pored over each photo and read the back-matter.
• 
  Alyson (Kid Lit Frenzy)

  I had looked through the book but hadn't read it yet. A friend recommended the audiobook and I listened to it during a car ride. The narrator brought Stone's book alive. I felt like I was truly listening to their story. Excellent to combine audiobook and actual book in print in order to see the photographs, etc.
• 
  Jenn Estepp

  A little-known story that deserves wider attention. As is often the case, the material trumps treatment. Meaning, I found the story told/information imparted here fascinating, but I didn't particularly love the Stone's presentation of things. It's not bad *at all* but it also didn't feel that engaging.
• 
  Edward Sullivan

  Reviewed professionally.
• 
  Latasha

  this story was heart wrenching and inspiring at the same time. yay for the men but it's so terrible what they had to deal with.
• 
  Hilary

  1. Twin Text: Jump Into the Sky by Shelley Pearsall, copyright 2012
  
  2. Rationale: The nonfiction book, Courage Has No Color, tells the story of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, all all-black airborne military unit that formed during World War II. During the war, black soldiers typically did not see combat, and most took service duties such as cooking, laundry, cleaning, or unloading cargo. Black soldiers stationed at the Service Company of The Parachute School at Fort Benning, Georgia, were tasked with guarding the facility. Walter Morris, a first sergeant in charge of the service unit at Fort Benning, recognized that his men were low in spirits and lacked meaningful purpose. As he watched white students go through their parachute training, Morris had an idea: “What if he had his men mimic the training of the white paratroopers? They could learn everything the paratroopers were learning, aside from jumping from the highest towers or out of airplanes – they would have needed official approval for that. But there was no reason they couldn’t model themselves after the paratroopers. And if they could do what those paratroopers were doing, what might that do to boost their morale?” (19-20). When the commandant of The Parachute School learned what Morris had been doing, he told Morris he recently had been authorized to create a new, all-black paratrooper unit – the 555th. Morris was made first sergeant. Though the 555th did not see combat, eventually its paratroopers did end up jumping out of aircraft and fighting wild fires on the west coast of the United States – fires that at the time were believed to be caused by Japanese balloon bombs (few if any of the fires were actually the result of Japanese bombs).
  
  The fictional twin text, Jump Into the Sky, also explores the world of the segregated U.S. military during World War II, as the protagonist’s father is a member of the 555th. The twin text mirrors the story of Triple Nickles through the experiences of Levi’s father, who is a lieutenant in the paratrooper battalion. This story further extends and enhances the nonfiction book when 13-year-old Levi, who is from Chicago, has to travel by himself through the Jim Crow South. After a long, hot ride in the dilapidated colored section of a train, the boy goes into a shop to buy a Coca-Cola. To Levi’s horror, the man working there takes his dollar and forces him to drink a warm grape soda at gunpoint. This reflects some of the experiences black soldiers reported in the nonfiction book, Courage Has No Color. Soldiers stationed in the South wrote: “We are treated like wild animals here, like we are inhuman. . . . Civilian polices have threatened to kill several soldiers. . . . Lieutenant Bromberg said all Negroes need to be beaten to death. . . . We never get enough to eat. In the hospital we are mistreated. Please help us” (19).
  
  In Jump Into the Sky, Levi eventually joins his father at his new posting in Oregon. Even though he is no longer in the South, Levi is shocked to discover how black soldiers, who want to fight for their country, are treated, when a commander tells his father’s colleague: “If it were up to me, none of you would be in this war. You’d know your place and stay in it. And our GIs would be out fighting the Japs where we belong. We have a tough enough war to wage in this world without playing around with the color lines and wasting our damned time training Negroes to jump out of airplanes” (217).
  
  3. Text Structures: Courage Has No Color is a work of narrative nonfiction where the author uses a combination of text structures, mainly description and chronological sequence. Narrative nonfiction is an engaging way of telling a factual story using quotes from people who were there to make the writing come alive. The scene were the members of the 555th find out what their new classified mission will be feels like a scene out of a novel:
  
  “The train clattered across the countryside. As they got close, they stopped for supplies and fuel. Morris and some of the men walked to a general store. A few white loggers were sitting around a potbellied stove, chatting.
  
  ‘Well, you got here at last,’ one of them said.
  
  Morris responded, ‘You were expecting us?’
  
  ‘Oh yeah, you colored soldiers, paratroopers, are going to fight forest fires for us. You’re going to be smokejumpers.’
  
  ‘How do you know?’ Morris asked.
  
  ‘Well, we read it in the New York Times’” (65).
  
  This book includes a table of contents, an appendix, a timeline of desegregation and the Triple Nickles, source notes, a bibliography, photography credits, an index, and a “The Story Behind the Story” section where the author talks about how she researched the book. Historic photos and images, including racist media from that era, enhance each chapter. Bold subject headings further divide the chapter into smaller sections.
  
  4. Strategy Application: I would have students work on a KWL chart about the experience of black soldiers during World War II. The segregation and racism they faced is such an integral part of their story and indeed is a great part of our nation’s bigger story about race and Civil Rights. Before reading either of the texts, students would jot down what they already know about black soldiers during World War II – it would be interesting to see if they would make the connection between that time period and the racism soldiers experienced. I believe many students would be shocked to discover that soldiers who were volunteering to fight for their country would be so badly mistreated. After filling out the K section, students would write what they wanted to know in the W section. As we read the two texts, students would periodically write what they learned in the L section.
• 
  Ricki

  Very informative and inspirational. I learned a lot about WWII that I did not know before, and thoroughly enjoyed it
• 
  Gena Montgomery

  During World War II, American soldiers fought against the fascism of Hitler, but at home, African-American soldiers were fighting an additional battle of their own. The U.S. military was segregated at the time, and African-Americans who enlisted to fight for their country were only allowed to take on service jobs. In Courage Has No Color, Stone shares the struggle of African-Americans in the military through the story of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, also known as the "Triple Nickles," the first black paratroopers in the U.S. military.
  
  Courage Has No Color: The Story of the Triple Nickles is a beautifully told story of the challenges and triumph of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion. At only 115 pages, the short length will attract readers of all ages, and the bounty of black and white photographs, political cartoons, and sketches will keep readers engaged in the struggle of these soldiers. Stone also includes a timeline that ties events in the book with the overall desegregation timeline to further clarify the Triple Nickles' place in history. With 11 pages of source notes and six pages of bibliographies for books, articles, interviews, and other sources, her work is well-researched and thoroughly documented.
  I already owned this book in an audio format (which was a 2014 YALSA Amazing Audio Pick) and was quite moved by the story of these soldiers when I listened to it on a day trip to Houston; however, after checking out the physical book from the local library, I highly recommend a traditional reading. Each spread has at least one visual that adds another dimension to the story.
  Courage Has No Color is appropriate for young adults in fifth grade and up. The large font, images, and generous use of white space make the book approachable for younger readers, and the depth of the story will deter older teens from dismissing it as a children's book.
  The only potential weakness in this book is the nonlinear structure of the book. Stone's narration weaves in quotes and anecdotes from various sources as necessary to tell the full story. Often the "full story" requires a tangent to provide historical context concerning civil rights, military history, or some other relevant background information. While the information is completely relevant and skillfully constructed with clear subheadings, immature readers expecting a true narrative may need guidance to understand the structure of the informational text. The weakness is not so much with the text itself but with a reader who is not quite ready for the book.
  Courage Has No Color is a 2014 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction finalist and a 2014 Orbis Pictus Honor Book that any reader interested in civil rights, military history, or African-American history will enjoy.
  
• 
  Rachael

  About this book, Sam said, "This is an extremely well-researched and documented book -- I doubt anyone will have any of the questions about attribution that came up in the discussions last year of Bomb." And that's true. The original research and primary sources alone make it an impressive offering. And, as Sam also notes, it's beautifully designed and illustrated.
  
  Of course, Sam also said that, "the prose is effective, but not particularly artful, and the panoramic nature of the book means that even the characters on whom the most time is spent, such as Walter Morris, the man most responsible for the formation of the unit, don't fully emerge as individuals." I think I was more troubled by both of those areas of evaluation than he was. I know that Tanya Lee Stone can write crisp, engaging prose that creates a feeling of suspense, even when she's dealing with an ultimately anticlimactic story, because she did it in Almost Astronauts. That doesn't happen here. The pacing feels off, and the prose is undistinguished.
  
  I also know that it's possible to write a book about an ensemble cast in which each character emerges as a distinct individual, because, again, Stone did it in Almost Astronauts. That kind of careful characterization also set We've Got a Job apart from the many other excellent nonfiction books published last year. In Courage Has No Color though, I gave up trying to tell the members of the Triple Nickles apart.
  
  Overall, I had the sense that Stone didn't have enough material on the Triple Nickles to write a complete book - or that she didn't think the material stood alone as a compelling story - because the book feels bloated with peripheral information. The digression into the Japanese experience during the war isn't long enough to do justice to the subject matter, but it feels too long for this book. Likewise, the last chapter, about post-WWII integration of the armed forces and the legacy of the Triple Nickles, feels long-winded without actually providing that much information.
  
  I'm being pretty harsh in my evaluation of what is, after all, one of the best nonfiction titles of the year, but this seems like a weak year for nonfiction, and I don't think Courage Has No Color will be picking up a Newbery.
• 
  Lynda

  I am so glad that I grabbed this playaway off the library shelf. I was thinking that it would be another option, just in case my first choices didn't pan out. As it turned out, this one actually outshone the rest!
  
  For me, there is always something special about reading a story that is true. Somehow, that fact enables me to more deeply invest my time and my value system into what I am reading. This is especially the case when the story is told with complete honesty, as is this one. The author took great pains to ensure that all the facts were correct, down to the last detail. The reader, J.D. Jackson, was perfect.
  
  Although I had heard of the first African American paratroopers who formed the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, known as the "Triple Nickels," this account explained how it came to be and exposed me to the many injustices these men had to withstand before being fully accepted and integrated into the U.S. Army. It enabled me to imagine how these men felt when they were often treated with contempt and forced to live in substandard conditions separated from those of the white soldiers, even though they were equal in rank and shared the same goal of fighting mutual enemies. They wanted to be accepted as fellow Americans, fighting for their country! This book explains how this dream was finally realized and gives credit to the individuals who diligently worked towards this end.
  
  Furthermore, this book examines a facet of World War II about which I had absolutely no knowledge: the Japanese attack on the American West. The men of the 555th were taught the difficult and dangerous skills involved in firefighting, and put into service to extinguish the many forest fires that were caused by this attack. (One reason why this is so little-known is because the government ultimately kept it secret from the American public so word would not get to the Japanese about whether their fire bombs were having any success.)
  
  Another fact of which I had previously been unaware and that I feel is significant is that World War II was a turning point in the serious American problem of race relations. Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickels makes this very clear.
• 
  Jim Erekson

  What made me enjoy this was the 'slice of history' approach. Unlike the Tuskegee Airmen, these soldiers never saw overseas combat duty during WWII. As such, the story doesn't have the Hollywood drama you get with fighter pilots over Italy. But it may be a better story about integration in the military, because the story arc shows how racist decision-making remained a military standard through the end of the war.
  
  The long-form picture book was similar in format and design to
  Emancipation Proclamation by Tonya Bolden. But this book did not get color printing. All the visuals were b/w photos and the design features were minimal. No designer credit? This was unusual for Candlewick for an obviously expensive book. Clean easy to read design, but no obvious hand of a known graphic designer--maybe their in-house designers really wanted the project? Anyway, high-quality hard cover, paper, and dust jacket were signs Candlewick did put money behind the project.
  
  Editors also spared no expense on the back matter pages (source notes, bibliography, timeline, index), including Stone's special section on her historical research methods! (More books need this feature!!) Stone actually did give staff designer Sherry Fatla an acknowledgement in the end matter with her editors, but did not call her out as the designer. Here's a good
  interview with Fatla by one of her past authors.
  
  The voice and power in the writing was not as strong as Bolden's in Emancipation. But then, Bolden had dozens if not hundreds of existing secondary sources to try to outdo! Stone claims the ground for the first comprehensive historical research on the 555th. Again, it was a pleasure to see a more obscure slice of history with this kind of author attention paired to the high quality production!