Courage Has No Color:  The True Story of the Triple Nickles
by Tanya Lee Stone

This fascinating book looks at the role of African Americans in the military through the lens of the untold story of the Triple Nickles as they become America's first black paratroopers and fought a little-known World War II attack on the American West by the Japanese. The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, in the words of First Sergeant Walter Morris, "proved that the color of a man had nothing to do with his ability."
-2014 Tayshas Reading List

The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Juliet Moreau is now sixteen and has pieced here life back together after her father deserted the family and her mother passed away.  She has been trying to forget the scandal that ruined her life.  Rumors are still just rumors and it was never proven that her father, Dr. Moreau actually did the gruesome experiments that he is rumored to done.

Now through her father's handsome lab assistant,  she learns he is alive and is continuing his work on a remote island.  Juliet must get to the bottom of the the tales regarding the awful experiments.  To do this, she travels with Dr. Moreau's lab assistant to this remote island with the hope of proving that her father is not the dreadful man that he is accused of being.  When Juliet gets to the island, she finds out that everything her father was accused of is true.  He is doing experiments on animals so that they resemble, speak and behave as humans.  Juliet knows she must end her father's madness and get off the island for her own safety.  But, will she be too late for those who inhabit the island and for herself as well.

Texas Tayshas 2014 Reading List for high school