Book Nook - Courageous Cowgirls: Women Who Rode the Trails, Ran Ranches, and Raced in Rodeos

They ran ranches, drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail, saved orphaned buffalo calves, faced down federales and bandits, performed death-defying stunts in Wild West shows, and barrel raced their way into the record books. Now, for the first time in a children's nonfiction book dedicated to the subject, twelve real Texas cowgirls tell their own stories.

TCU Press announces the October 2026 publication of Courageous Cowgirls: Women Who Rode the Trails, Ran Ranches, and Raced in Rodeos by Sue Young — a debut collection of first-person prose poems bringing to life twelve trailblazing women who shaped the history of Texas and the American West. Illustrated by Katie Howerton, the book is written for readers ages 8-12.

From Patricia de la Garza de Leon — who helped found Victoria, Texas in the early 1800s — to Verna Lee Booker Hightower, a Black barrel racer who competed in the Girls Rodeo Association in the 1950s, Courageous Cowgirls spans more than a century of Texas women who refused to stay indoors. The book's twelve portraits represent the full breadth of Texas heritage: Mexican American land grant holders, African American ranchers, Seminole scouts, Anglo homesteaders, and rodeo queens of every background.

Young writes each poem in the woman's own voice — a deliberate choice that puts young readers directly in each cowgirl's saddle. Portraits of Patricia de la Garza de Leon, Dona Estefana Cortina, Henrietta Williams Foster, Johanna July, Lizzie Johnson Williams, Mollie Dyer Goodnight, Bennie Hughes Miskimon, Viola Perry Anderson, Alice Stillwell Henderson, Tad Barnes Lucas, Hallie Crawford Stillwell, and Verna Lee Booker Hightower are accompanied by informative sidebars on the Chisholm Trail, cattle drives, American bison, rodeos, Wild West shows, cowgirl fashion, and the property laws that shaped women's lives in the West.

The book also includes a historical timeline, a map showing where the cowgirls lived and worked, and individual biographical profiles — making it equally at home on a classroom shelf and a library display.


Sue Young is a storyteller, performing songwriter, librarian, and educator based in Austin, Texas. She has been a member of the Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Artist Roster since 1994 — thirty years of bringing history and literature to life for audiences across the state. She holds a BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico and is a member of SCBWI and the Texas Library Association. Courageous Cowgirls is her debut book.


About TCU Press

TCU Press is the publishing arm of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Since 1947, TCU Press has published books that illuminate the history, literature, and culture of Texas and the American West. www.tcupress.com