The Texas Boys reads like a wholesome Texas version of Tom Sawyer. (All of the adventure without the lying, stealing and cheating.) It’s a story that adults can enjoy as a chronicle of early Texas trail driving, but well worth sharing with kids and grandkids as a good old-fashioned adventure tale.

It broke a lot of ground when it was first published in 1877. J. Frank Dobie considered it the first authentic chronicle of a cattle drive. Young Nasho was the first Mexican-American protagonist in American literature. Some consider it the pioneer book of the entire Western fiction genre. What is truly between these covers is T. J. Pilgrim recounting the stories he heard from the earliest cowboys, and making it read like fast-moving fiction. We think you’ll consider it one of the best historical Texas books you’ve read in a long time.