My 6th grade teacher used this book as read-aloud for our class, and Tamora Pierce quickly became one of my favorite authors throughout junior high and my early high school years. This book is the first in the Song of the Lioness series. Pierce has several other series published, all of which have similar styles and themes.
Alanna of Trebond is a young girl who wishes to become a knight in the mythical land of Tortall. There's just one problem: she's a girl, and there hasn't been a female knight in the realm for over 100 years. She is to be sent to a convent, and her twin brother Alan (who wishes to become a sorcerer) is to become a knight. The two of them have very disinterested parents, so they come up with a scheme to get what they want. Alanna cuts her hair and travels to the king's palace, disguised as a boy named Alan. She becomes a page and excels at her training, but faces many challenges as she tries to keep her gender a secret.
I really love Pierce's books because they all feature mythical realms, magic, and knights... but almost all of them feature a heroine instead of the typical male characters that you would expect to see in such stories. I feel that these novels are a great way for get girls involved in a genre that is generally very male-oriented. A teacher could use this book as a class-wide reading, like mine did, and expose not only girls but also boys to the idea that you don't have to be male to be a knight.
This book is a very interesting and exciting read and will have many readers heading to the library in search of the rest of the series.
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