Alanna: The First Adventure

Title: Alanna -The First Adventure
Series: Song of the Lioness
Author: Tamora Pierce
Age: 9-14
Rating: 3/5

About: A young girl with some magical abilities does not want to be trained to become a Lady -she wishes to become a warrior-knight. Disguising herself as a boy she rides to the palace and begins her grueling training. This book spans 4 years of her training.

Thoughts: I picked this one up because I've been hearing about it for years and so many people remarked surprise when I said I'd not read it. I was actually more attracted to the Protector of the Small series but was advised that I should read this one first. This is a pretty quick and easy read. I like how Alanna challenges herself to be better than everyone by training and working hard. Reading about her triumph is satisfying, and yet while she works so hard her success seems easy. Whatever she puts her mind to -she wins it.

There is a lot of action, one thing seems to happen right after the other without warning. This might be a good suggestion for a young reader who is easily bored while reading -particularly girls since this is definitely a girl power story.

This is a book for 9-12 year old readers for sure. I gave this book 3/5 because I thought that the story moved way too quickly without enough character development. True Alanna comes through a lot throughout the story, but the writing was too simple and the story was so straightforward that I was almost bored with it. *Spoiler ahead* While I didn't guess what would happen next, I didn't feel there was much suspense as Alanna prevailed against even the darkest evils without much effort. This I could forgive except that she never questions how easily she conquers such evils and never really pursues developing her Gift -even though she does seem to have a natural very powerful control over her magical abilities.


Title: In the Hand of the Goddess

Alanna is getting older and life is getting more complicated. Some of her friends who know her secret are acting differently around her; she is curious to learn how to act like a woman; and she has a new pet with its own special abilities. As she gets older she also has to face her fears.

This one was very quick to get through. Again Alanna ages quickly, she jumps from 15 to 18 and finally becomes a knight. The Ordeal was pretty anti-climactic especially after it had been built up to be a great source of fear for her.


Title: The Woman Who Rides Like a Man

About: Immediately following the events in the second book, Alanna rides out towards the desert to start her adventures as a knight. And almost right away she is taken by the Bazhir and must prove herself worthy of their respect and protection, if she can't she will die.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this book a lot more than the initial two. We get to know Alanna better, which I liked -and her relationships with Jonathan and George are explored a lot better.