Alanna: The First Adventure

Eleven-year-old Alanna of Trebond wants to be a knight, but unfortunately she is just a girl. She disguises herself as a boy and swaps places with her brother so she can go to knight school. Bullied for being a "little guy" she bonds with the older boys who come to "Alan's" rescue and trains harder than anyone else so she can stand up for herself. She feels especially connected to Prince Jonathan, a few years ahead of her at school, who shares her magical Gift for healing, and George Cooper, the local thief kingpin. Years pass, and Jonathan selects "Alan" to be his squire when he is sent by his evil uncle to the southern Black City, full of demons.

There's so much going on in this middle grade book that took me ~3 hours to reread. Alanna show more has trauma from her mother's death and is afraid of the magical powers she inherited from her. The Duke is her magic teacher but is also clearly evil and trying to kill Jonathan and his parents because he's 4th in line for the throne. The groundwork is laid for Alanna to have a thing with Jonathan, which is icky when she's 11 and he's 14+ but gets less so as they get older, and also with George Cooper, who is possibly an adult?? The book spans years within just a few pages, which is hard to wrap my head around. I really liked the set-up of Alanna's bully Ralon being clearly foreshadowed that he would return. I hated the fantasy racism of the Bazhir, Persopolis, and the Black City.

I really enjoyed revisiting this book. I don't think I'll go on to reread the rest of the quartet, but it does make me want to pick up more of Pierce's books I haven't read yet. show less

These are being re-released and not only do I still love reading them, I extra-special love Tamora Pierce's letters at the end that talk about the context in which she was writing each book. I'm finding this particularly interesting to read now, in a time of trans visibility -- that's not the story that's being told here at all, and yet I appreciate that in some ways it leaves the door open. Still a fantastic story, still a satisfying adventure.

Ooh, and I LOVE the new covers.

Advanced reader's copy provided by edelweiss (2023)

I totally missed Tamora Pierce when I was a young person, so I am giving her a read now.

Alanna is one of those classic young adult novels that uses the language of children's literature to tell a somewhat more mature story. It's a fairly engaging school story that captures the emotional intensity of adolescence (I love how Alanna either LOVES or HATES everyone she meets). However, I didn't care for the prose (endless narrative passages! POV jumps galore!), the worldbuilding was uneven, and there were some pretty sentimental moments that didn't move me as a grown-up reader.

Yet Pierce does many things very, very well in telling the now cliched story of a cross-dressing young woman training to become a warrior. Alanna herself is a very show more honest depiction of a woman trying to succeed in a traditionally male role. No one knows Alanna is female, but Alanna knows and is possessed by a powerful, sometimes self-destructive need to prove herself. She is haunted by fear that she's not good enough and guilt that she's lying to her friends.

At the end of the day, Pierce's message is not that women can do everything men can do. It's that women can do everything men can do, but the experience of being the exceptional woman will totally suck.

As an aside, it occurred to me that the cross-dressing lady warrior trope fails to address the historical experiences of cross-dressing people who didn't identify with their birth gender. Alanna is told that it's important that she not lose touch with her female identity. This is somewhat fair if she's happy identifying as a woman, but super unhelpful otherwise. By assuming that people cross-dress in order to get access to male privilege, these narratives tend to push aside the reality of transgender people in the past. show less

5

One of my favourite childhood reads, although this is very much a children's book and doesn't really stand up to adult reading.

However, I can't escape my abiding love for its strong, stubborn, honourable heroine and her determination to pursue her dreams regardless of the challenges. A few shaky bits of prose aside, it's fast-paced and gloriously single-minded in letting its heroine overcome her challenges on her own. She may need to learn to ask for help, but she doesn't need rescuing. It's definitely simplistic (it's a children's book - it's allowed to be) - and while the Sweating Fever sequence retains its power, Alanna's adventures in Olau and Persopolis feel a little too easy to me now, without any real question of her survival. show more The real joy for me though is in Alanna's steadfast refusal to give in to the more mundane challenges of bullying, mathematics and swordcraft, repeatedly knuckling down and finding ways to achieve her goals.

Not perfect, but still a great book for a younger reader (my 7 year old self would have given it 5 stars). show less

Reading this book was, I believe, a formative experience for me. I was in fourth grade, and I devoured it, so tired was I of stories about girls who babysat and worried about boys. Here was a girl who didn't always behave how adults might wish, who was ornery and stubborn but still good-hearted and brave. I related....as much as I could, seeing as there was no way that I was becoming a knight. The plot is well-spun and very high stakes, in all directions, for the heroine and for the kingdom in which she lives. To be honest, I've read this so many times that my copy is on the verge of falling apart and I will keep reading this into old age. Alanna is one of the great characters of young adult literature; she is extremely well fleshed out show more and practically leaps off the page with the intensity of her presence. It is a relevant story for young girls who are coming of age in what is still a man's world. show less

Piccolo e assolutamente squisito questo primo capitolo della serie "The Song of the Lioness" di Tamora Pierce che arriva nelle librerie italiane dopo ben, pensate un po', 28 anni! Grazie alla Fanucci questo romanzo, evidentemente per un pubblico molto giovane (9/13 anni), è stato tradotto ed è pronto ad allietare i nostri giovani con un avventura che narra di coraggio, amicizia, affetti, magia, sacrificio, tenacia e un pizzico di follia.

Alanna, infatti, è una ragazza giovanissima quando suo padre, da sempre racchiuso nel suo mondo fatto di studi, decide di spedire lei e suo fratello gemello, Thom, via da casa per conseguire un addestramento in buone maniere la prima e in combattimento il secondo. Peccato che i ragazzi non siano per show more nulla d'accordo con le intenzioni del padre e decidano di fare di testa loro cambiandosi di posto per seguire i loro sogni.

Thom sarebbe andato al posto della sorella ad apprendere le arti magiche e lei, da brava maschiaccio, sarebbe andata all'accademia militare per conseguire il suo sogno: diventare una Guerriera. Il fatto, poi, che la giovane Alanna si sia camuffata da maschio per l'occasione sembra essere irrilevante per lei, non c'è tentennamento e non c'è paura (o almeno non troppa); assieme al fido Coram, insegnante dei gemelli fin da piccoli, si getterà con entusiasmo e caparbietà in questa avventura.

In un certo senso il romanzo della Pierce è molto semplice e lo stile usato è diretto e facilmente comprensibile per ogni ragazzo, questo fa sì che per un lettore adulto il romanzo sia leggibile in poco più di tre ore, se vogliamo abbondare. A quanto pare inizialmente The Song of the Lioness era un unico romanzo, poi diviso dalla casa editrice americana per la pubblicazione, è dunque facile intuire perchè, oggi, "La Principessa Alanna" conti solo 200 pagine.

Tornando al romanzo quello che mi ha seriamente colpito è stato che non ci è stata presentata la solita giovane eroina che fa tutto, può tutto e ottiene tutto. Alanna soffre, si impegna, cade e si rialza ogni giorno della sua faticosa vita accademica. Si conquista con calma il suo posto fra i compagni, il rispetto degli adulti e non pecca mai di arroganza, anzi. E' un romanzo che narra la crescita emotiva della protagonista e, per una volta, perfino quella fisica. E' infatti presente, per una volta, un elemento importantissimo che spesso viene evitato dalle autrici di libri per giovani: le mestruazioni. Sembra incredibile ma Alanna viene messa di fronte anche a questo particolare della crescita e, poverina, il rischio di farle venire un infarto è stato concreto visto che, essendo orfana di madre, non aveva mai sentito parlare di quel fenomeno. Dolcissima della sua terrorizzata reazione, non possiamo fare a meno di provare simpatia per lei e rispetto per l'autrice che finalmente si è posta con schiettezza e maturità nei confronti dei giovani, maschi o femmine che siano. Se pensiamo che il libro è stato scritto nel 1983, possiamo capire quanto sia stata una scelta coraggiosa.

In definitiva un libro leggero, piacevole e amabile per grandi e piccini, sicuramente da regalare ad un figlio, un cugino o un amichetto. show less