Amazon.com info for 'Alana: The First Adventure'

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Back to reviews and details of Alana: The First Adventure

Amazon.com reviews:

Rating: 4 Summary: Good read, too short.
Comment I did not realize when I bought these books that they were for young adults, I still thoroughly enjoyed reading about Alanna's adventures, friends and family. Alanna proved to the men again and again that "anything you can do I can do better". A great message to put out there for young girls. And even though it took me 1 day to read each book I just couldn't stop until I was done!

Rating: 1 Summary: Basic moral values
Comment Is no one bothered by the essential lack of values in this book? Getting what you want is more important than honesty or respect for others. The main character threatens others with horrible, supernatural punishment, tricks her father, lies outrightly, and that's just in the first chapter.
What about integrity, justice, truth as foundations of doing right?
Compare this heroine with Jonas in The Giver, Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, Andy in Wolf Rider, or Karana in The Island of the Blue Dolphins.

Rating: 5 Summary: Life Changing at 12
Comment When I first picked up this book, I was the typical bookworm. I knew every corner of my middle school's library. Most often, I'd find myself in the mythology section or classic plays. However, one day, I took a fateful journey into the fantasy section.
I was 12 years old, timid and accepting of even the worst opinions of me.
When I read it, I was enlightened. A whole five foot one, (four foot eleven at the time), I was keenly aware of her height issues and the jokes her friends made.
The way she shaped her own life made me feel as if I could do the same. And I have. I took control -- or as Alanna would say "rode the tiger" and I've made my own way in the world and I don't think anyone would call me timid now.
I'm in college now, and I know if I start to feel down or like I'm losing confidence in myself, I can just pick up my old worn out copy of Alanna (or any of the subsequent sequels) and feel better, feel like a stronger woman because of it. Tamora Pierce was a saint for writing this book. Sometimes I even feel like she wrote it just for me!

Rating: 4 Summary: Parents beware
Comment I thought this book was wonderful. However, it is not appropriate for children under 14. The reading level is not that difficult, but the content is for upper grades. This book inadvertently appeared on my daughter's third grade reading list. She did not understand why Alanna's sheet were "smeared with blood" She also had lots of questions about fertility cycles, sleeping with men and getting pregnant.

Rating: 2 Summary: choppy with lots of erros
Comment This book started with a great IDEA. I liked the idea of Allana becoming a knight in her brothers place. It sounds like a book that can have SO MANY possibilites. However, the auther's choppy writing and typing errors were just sad. The author moves from one scene to the next, with no flow whatsoever, and simply skims the surface of the character's identity. There is no depth, and no description. It is almost a simple statement of facts throughout the whole book. Though I really want to know what happens in the series, and HOPE very much that the auther's writing has improved, I think I'll just look at the library for the rest of the series.