The story of Cynthia Ann Parker is one of the most poignant in American history. This book is full of well-documented Texas history. One would only wish the author had written with more understanding and sympathy for Cynthia Ann, but it would take a really careful, gifted, and creative novelist, or perhaps a psychologist / anthropologist, to do that. Perhaps it will take a woman to write the definitive story of Cynthia Ann Parker. The reader of "Sunshine on the Prairie" cannot help but be irritated by the countless one-sentence paragraphs and abrupt flash-backs. It may be best read along with Fehrenbach's "Comanches: The Destruction of a People." ( )