Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness, Vol. 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Tamora Pierce (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Call it fate, call it intuition, or just call it common sense, but somehow young Alanna knows she isn't meant to become some proper lady cloistered in a convent. Instead, she wants to be a great warrior maiden--a female knight. But in the land of Tortall, women aren't allowed to train as warriors. So Alanna finds a way to switch places with her twin, Thom, and take his place as a knight in training at the palace of King Roald. Disguising herself as a boy, Alanna begins her training as a page in the royal court. Soon, she is garnering the admiration of all around her, including the crown prince, with her strong work ethic and her thirst for knowledge. But all the while, she is haunted by the recurring vision of a black stone city that emanates evil... somehow she knows it is her fate to purge that place of its wickedness. But how will she find it? And can she fulfill her destiny while keeping her gender a secret?

With Alanna: The First Adventure, veteran fantasy author Tamora Pierce has created a lively, engaging heroine who will charm middle-school readers with her tomboyish bravado and have them eagerly searching for the next book in the Song of the Lioness series. Like Brian Jacques's tales of Redwall, this popular quartet is an entertaining fantasy series for younger teens. (Ages 10 to 13) --Jennifer Hubert

Review
"A lively, fascinating tale."--Booklist -- Review

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (October 17, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679801146
• ISBN-13: 978-0679801146
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (585 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #774,477 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 1 in The Song of the Lioness Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of all worlds., April 25, 2005

By	R.K.M. "RKM" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

I must have read these four novels by Tamora Pierce at least eight times. I loved them growing up and I love them still, although I am not nearly so pleased with her more recent work. I'm glad that she is successful but the quality seems to have sharply fallen off.

Anyway, this series is about a ten yr old girl named Alanna and her twin brother Thom who are being sent away to be educated. Thom is meant to become a knight and Alanna to go to a convent school. Neither twin is happy with the situation so they forge new letters of introduction from their father and Thom goes off to the convent/monastery to learn to become a Mage and Alanna is disguised as "Alan" and goes to the castle to become a knight.

The books follow her adventures while at school then after she is ordained and they are so engaging and wonderful with many memorable characters not to mention a strong female role model. I reccommend this series to anyone, but most especially anyone with a ten yr old daughter who might fall in love with these books the way I did.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very clever!, February 18, 2001

By	Stephan Nance (Eugene, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This was SUCH a good book! Alanna has to go to a convent to learn "how to be a lady" and her twin brother has to go learn how to be a knight...but both of them want to go to the place where the other is going. So they switch places. Well, her brother doesn't have to go learn to be a lady...when boys go to the convent they learn to be sorcerers. Alanna loves hunting and doing things like that, and her brother loves sorcery, while socery scares Alanna and her brother hates hunting and that sort of thing. Alanna disguises herself as a boy and says she is Alan. She meets many friends, such as Prince Jonathon, the son of a noble king, and George, the King of Theives. She also meets a few enemies...such as Rolan, a bully at the palace, and Duke Roger, a mysterious uncle of Jonathon who Alan(na) insists is evil. This wonderful and action-packed book will have you laughing, shivering, crying, and rejoicing. It's a must-read for fans of Harry Potter (by J.K. Rowling), Everworld (by K.A. Applegate), Protector of the Small (by Tamora Pierce), and the Immortals (also by Tamora Pierce).

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an excellent book!, February 25, 2000

By	Jana (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

I was first introduced to this book in third grade by someone who was babysitting me. By fourth grade I had read the whole series a number of times. I don't know if I would say this one or the last one was my favorite, but both were great. You can imagine the characters are real, and the same goes to the world they live in. I still love these books, but now I'm in eighth grade. I see all these adults who have read these books, and I think it is great! I can read these over and over and over and not get bored, even though I know exactly what is going to happen and when. I doubt they will ever get boring, thank God. I'll always have a good book to read! I recommend reading the whole series, along with the Wild Magic series, after you read this book, to find out all that happens to Alanna. I havn't read her new series yet, I think I'll wait for it to come out in paper back. I don't know if I'm ready to read something by her that isn't somehow related to the magical world of Tortall and Alanna! Well anyway, this is an excellent book, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes reading even a little bit, and especially to girls. I don't think this is really a guy book...