#75 in Young adult
Alanna: The First Adventure
- 241
- Pages
- about 4.5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Alanna: The First Adventure” earns its heroine’s reputation on the page: her skill is shown growing through hard training, never merely asserted. Disguised as a boy among the trainee pages, Alanna has to master the sword and a magical gift besides. Some find the book predictable and full of familiar tropes, and readers returning as adults may find it slightly less exciting. A natural first fantasy for young readers.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Alanna: The First Adventure is a fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce. Originally published in 1983, it is the first in a series of four books for young adults, The Song of the Lioness. Pierce originally drafted a single novel aimed at adults, but revised it to a series for young adults after being unable to find a publisher. Set in a time and place where girls are forbidden from becoming knights, the novel details the beginning of Alanna of Trebond's training as a knight as she hides her gender from teachers and fellow pages.
Reading order · The Song of the Lioness
Full order & progress →- Alanna: The First AdventureThis book
8.28.2 / 10 - In the Hand of the Goddess
8.18.1 / 10 - The Woman Who Rides Like a Man
8.08.0 / 10 - Lioness Rampant
8.18.1 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.2 across 376 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 72% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Young adult average of 7.8. That is how 8.2 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.7 | 43 | 11% |
| Hardcover | 8.2 | 333 | 89% |
Frequently asked
What age is Alanna: The First Adventure for?
Alanna: The First Adventure sits on the Young adult shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 13 and up. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 241 pages — shorter than 97% of the ranked books in Young adult.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Young adult — with scores between 7.9 and 8.4, closest to this book.
