These Is My Words, The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine 1881-1901, Arizona Territories

Nancy E. Turner wrote this novel in 1998.  I have just finished reading it, and my question is:  Why didn't I know about it before now?! Anyone who lives in the southwest, or anyone ever curious about how people settled in the southwest, or anyone who loves cowboys and Indians and romantic calvary officers should read this book.

Sarah Prine is a teenager when her family pulls up stakes and travels from the southwest to the east and then back to the southwest again. Along the way they encounter very unhappy Indians, whiney eastern tenderfoots, (tenderfeet?), unsavory and unwashed bandits and fellow travelers good and bad, all documented in the diary that young Sarah starts on the trail.  More than just a travel log, this is the story of Sarah, her family and her education in letters and in life.  It is a charming and terrifying story, and it will make you happy that you can sleep safely in your varmint-free beds at night. It is also the story of how a rough and dangerous frontier becomes a state with cities and universities, something I think we all take for granted.

Nancy Turner won the Arizona Author Award for this book.  She wrote two sequels to These Is My Words, Sarah's Quilt and The Star Garden, so we get to follow Sarah's adventures beyond 1901.  This book was a sweet surprise.  I hope you agree!

Mary Kay