Why yes. Yes, women should mind their own business. Especially if you are one of the women in this book that could and would barrel ride, cattle drive, steal back horses and guns, not to mention run chuck wagons and their own cattle businesses. In Courageous Cowgirls: Women Who Rode the Trails, Ran Ranches, and Raced in Rodeos you see women who did this and more (though stealing back your husband’s gun and your cattle a few hundred at time is impressive enough). This book was created by Sue Young and Katie Howerton.
And if you’re thinking, “Why would I want to read about women born in the 1700s or 1800s and who died in the 1800s?” Well you’d be wrong! Because at least one would die in the early 1900’s and one as recently as 1997 at the ripe ol’ age of 100.
Nineteen-Ninety-Seven! One-nine-nine-seven! A person that many of us could have met. A woman who had lived a lifetime of bad-a$$ery as she wasn’t “just” a cowgirl, but a mother, teacher, hairdresser. What was I doing in 1997? Graduating college and had no idea how I was going to take the next step. Therefore, these women are not ancient history, they are today’s and tomorrow’s history as well. These women would show that you might wear a skirt, but you could do “man’s work.” And some would buck traditions even farther and wear (gasp!) trousers! TROUSERS! AKA: PANTS. 
Seriously, though, this is a fantastic introduction to real women that don’t make the history books in ways that people like Annie Oaklee would have (but then again she was pretty cool, too). We follow women of different ages and races. Could you move to Texas at age twelve in your parents’ covered wagon, ride rodeo, and keep the cattle drivers fed? At 12 I was still learning to ride my bike, I can’t tell the difference between the front and back end of the horse unless something doesn’t smell and trust me, nobody wants to eat my cooking!
Each woman is given a verse poem highlighting the events of these women’s lives. At the bottom of the page are extra notes and information about the event(s) mentioned in the story. Then, there is more fun with several pieces of additional facts, timelines and more.
Due late October 2027 and was read via an online reader copy.
