When I was young I loved the Song of the Lioness Series by Tamora Pierce. The other day I was at Barnes & Noble getting a book for my friend when I saw them out of the corner of my eye. I know my younger cousin Zoe is a bookworm just like I am and I thought she might like them too so I bought her the first in the series, Alanna The First Adventure. The books follow the story of Alanna of Trebond, a young noble, who at the age of 10 is being sent to the convent to learn to be a proper lady. Eventually she'll go to court and marry another noble. Alanna wants none of this and decides to switch places with her twin brother who is going to the castle of the king to learn to be a knight. They forge their father's signature and Alanna goes to the city disguised as a boy to learn to be a knight, while her brother Thom goes off to become a sorcerer. These books are filled with knights and kings, magic (not the Harry Potter kind so much), adventure, friendship, and destiny. A young girl shows her determination and learns to believe in herself.
This was the first fantasy series I ever read and it's fabulous. Since I bought the first one for Zoe I decided to read it again really quickly before I sent it off. This led me to getting a library card here in Utah so I could check out the other 3 books. That led me to checking out the series that comes after Alanna which follows a young girl named Daine who possesses wild magic.
Isn't the cover hilariously awesome? The book was originally published in 1983, plus most fantasy novels have terrible covers.
A note to my sister: these books take no more than a few hours to read so they'd be great for baby napping times.
Good enough to pick up even tho they're meant for a 10 year old?? (not that this has ever bothered me before!)
ReplyDeleteHeck yes!! I just read all 8 books in the last week because they're awesome. They're meant for older than 10 but I was going to write a not to U. Cool to let him know that there is sex in the Alanna series, although it is described as, "they shared a bedroll" but there isn't in the Immortals series.
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