On the Bookshelf

Title: Alanna: The First Adventure
Series: The Song of the Lioness Quartet
Author: Tamora Pierce
Publisher: Atheneum
Release Date: September, 1983
Source: Library

Disguised as a boy, Alanna sets out to achieve her ultimate ambition: to become a knight. The struggle to prove she is as strong as the other young men demands all her determination but the need to cover her growing femininity is an entirely different challenge. And while the court magician may be her most dangerous enemy, the possibility of love may be her undoing...

My Thoughts:
 This one is a reread for me as part of a recent desire to revisit some childhood favourites. I think I first stumbled upon this gem around the age of ten or eleven. It was my first Tamora Pierce book and ever since this series has remained my favourite of hers.

As a ten year old I loved Alanna and her commitment to reaching her goals and the easy to read nature of the books. As a twenty-one year old I still enjoy Pierce's writing style, world building, and characters but wish that the books were longer.

Oh, sure, maybe I do now look at The Song of the Lioness Quartet with "rose coloured glasses" so to speak. Reading this first book in the series again was most certainly a nostalgic experience and I found myself thinking "I remember this bit!" and "oh, this scene used to be my favourite!" quite often. I believe that, more than anything, it goes to show how enjoyable a read it is for the target age group and that I do consider it to be one of the influential and memorable books that I was discovering at that time. I feel that many of the books, including this series, that I enjoyed at that age had great influence on the development of my taste in fiction right up to this day.

If you have never read any Tamora Pierce then start here! If you are looking for a good fantasy series for a preteen then start here! Yes, it has its flaws including clichés and definitely a need for more detail but I consider this to be one of my treasured childhood favourites and I just have to share it. I'm not entirely sure if this is really a review or really just biased raving in disguise.

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Terra