Triple Nickles

Tanya Lee Stone's Courage Has no Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles is a beautifully arranged book.  There is a plethora of photographs which seamlessly enhance what she has written.

 Everyone knows I am not the biggest fan of non-fiction, but I didn't know anything about the Triple Nickles so I did appreciate the opportunity to learn something new. If you also don't know-the Triple Nickles are America's first black paratroopers, quite a feat considering most aspects of American life, including the military, were highly segregated with many people still believing that black people were somehow inferior.

Courage Has no Color has a very academic tone.  Though personal stories are told it reads like a history book, not a narrative. The photographs are a wonderful addition, but they don't do enough to keep the interest up.   The story of the Triple Nickles is remarkable, what they did is an amazing achievement and their story should be told as widely and as loudly as possible, but for me this book wasn't the way to do it.  It just seemed dry.

However, I will be the first to admit this is not my favorite genre and I don't read a lot of non-fiction because most of it comes off dry to me.  If you are a fan of non-fiction you will probably love this book and think I am crazy for saying it was dry.  I will be recommending it to many of my students, especially those who have expressed interest in WWII. This book would also be an excellent companion to our reading of Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry.

Overcoming hate...that's kids stuff.