Review: Courage Has No Color

Cover © Candlewick Press

I’ve been so busy lately, I feel like I’m hardly reading. But of course I am. And I am still committed to getting out three reviews a month. This is my second of March, so I’m on target so far.

I’ve got some fascinating nonfiction for you today. Courage Has No Color, the True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers, by Tanya Lee Stone, is pretty much what the title says.

Courage Has No Color tells an amazing story. Think about Word War II. Hitler’s whole war was based on racist ideals. And the United States was fighting him because they knew he was wrong. But at home, thousands–millions, probably–of African Americans were being denied basic civil rights. The USA was fighting a terrible racist regime while allowing clear racism to exist in it’s own cities.

If you were an African American back then, would you want to fight for your country? A country that doesn’t treat you fairly? In Courage Has No Color, Tanya Lee Stone introduces us to a group of men who love their country, who want to show the credits and capabilities of their race to those who believe that they are inferior. Is there a better way to fight injustice than by proving that the basis for that injustice is false?

Lately, there have been a lot of really great books–fiction and nonfiction–about the struggle for civil rights. On the historical fiction side, The Lions of Little Rock, Crow, and Glory Be are wonderful, important stories. And I just recently read We’ve Got a Job, about children marching for civil rights in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.

Sometimes, I wonder if we forget about some of our history a little bit, way up here in Washington. We are almost as far away as you can get from Alabama or Little Rock, and still be in the United States. Is it important to know these stories? What do you think?

When I read books like these, I am amazed by the courage of the men, women, and children involved. Even if we feel far away from the history of it, we can understand the themes, we can recognize right and wrong, we can learn about standing up and speaking out for what is right.

Tanya Lee Stone tweeted back to me. She’ll answer your questions if you read her book!

[tweet https://twitter.com/TanyaLeeStone/status/294046001667387392]

Book trailer!

Keep reading!

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Courage Has No Color, the True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers

By Tanya Lee Stone

160 pages

Genre: Nonfiction; informational; military

Source: NetGalley

This book is on shelves now!