A Promise Fulfilled: The Kitty Anderson Diary and Civil War Texas, 1861 (Lou Halsell Rodenberger Prize) Hardcover – Import, 30 October 2017

Judging a book by its cover…. I speculated this would be a good history book about a girl and her top-secret diary. Well, I was wrong…. It was an EXCELLENT Texas history book about a girl and her family’s astonishing, chaotic, nail-biting adventures. If you’re a Texas History buff or an amateur like me, you’ll appreciate the way Nancy Draves used her vision to turn Kitty’s diary into a hand-held gift. And with extensive research and extraordinary writing, Draves figuratively delivers this book with a bow! The writing style has given me the freedom to just open the book and let the pages take me through the dramatic true-life events of Kitty Anderson and her family. I can totally imagine this book turning into a motion picture, and just for the record………actresses Saoirse Ronan or Annasophia Robb would make the perfect Kitty Anderson. Remember you heard it from me first!

Author Nancy Draves has won two awards for "A Promise Fulfilled."In 2017, Texas Tech University Press presented Draves with the Lou Halsell Rodenberger Book Prize in History, Culture, and Literature.In 2018, the Academy of Western Artists held the 23rd Annual “Will Rogers Awards” and presented the Elmer Kelton Nonfiction Book Award to Draves.Also the Texas State Historical Association published a terrific review of "A Promise Fulfilled" in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly in its July 2018 issue. Deborah Liles, Ph.D., who is a history professor at the University of North Texas, wrote that Nancy Draves relied on “a variety of underused sources, all of which add relevance, depth, and value to the narrative. "A Promise Fulfilled" is a welcome addition to the growing body of literature recording women’s experiences in Texas during the Civil War.”

A Promise Fulfilled: The Kitty Anderson Diary, gives the reader a glimpse of what life was like in Texas during the early years of the Civil War. Kitty’s diary details the trails and tribulations her family endures during this time period. Her diary shares her feelings of fear and remorse as her family is forced to leave their beautiful home and friends because of her father’s unwillingness to support the Confederate Movement. Kitty also describes her father’s frightening escape from the Confederates. The author, Nancy Draves, provides the reader with a informative historical perspective of this time period. This book was like taking a journey back into time!