“One sweltering summer night in Atlanta, Georgia, the lights went down on a roaring national convention. The hall stilled. And when those lights came back up, a high-cotton-haired Ann Richards dazzled the crowd and delighted television viewers everywhere. Her one-liners zinged. Her Southern drawl zanged. Just as soon as Ann finished making everyone laugh till they cried, folks asked why Ann wasn’t running for president.

Because there was still work to be done in Texas.

Ann stood up and raised her helping hand high again, this time to run for governor. It was an uphill campaign, spattered with muddy attacks and stinging insults.

A whole mess of Texans thought Ann was out of her league and destined for defeat.

But Ann couldn’t be stopped. She kept on visiting all those little towns. She steered a boat through coastal waterways. She listened to the people: a colorful patchwork of Texans sewn tightly together by their desire for change. . . .

And when they elected her the forty-fifth governor of Texas, they joined hands, marched up Congress Avenue, and took back the Capitol for the people, just like Ann had promised.”

Excerpt from Indelible Ann: The Larger-Than-Life Story of Governor Ann Richards by Meghan P. Browne, illustrated by Carlynn Whitt; published by Random House Studio. Courtesy of Random House Children’s Books.