Pursuing the Lioness Guest Post: Angie of Angieville

A self-confessed bookpusher, Angie told me I should read Tamora Pierce’s Alanna books. I didn’t listen. Not right away, at least. And, boy, was that a mistake! Once I dug in and got totally swept up in Alanna’s world I thought, “Well, shoot. Angie was right. Again.” And that’s why the first guest post of the Pursuing the Lioness challenge comes from Angie of Angieville. (Thanks, Angie!) __________________________________

Adventures with Alanna:

When I was twelve years old I moved back to the states from Italy. After living abroad for a few years, coming back was a rough transition. To put it mildly. Nothing was as I remembered it. The food tasted different, the clothes were all different, even the way the other kids talked seemed to have changed drastically in my absence. I entered seventh grade holding my breath and I don’t think I let it out the entire year. Even though I was physically inhabiting the same space, I still felt an ocean apart. The one familiar thing in my world was the library and I sought out the nearest one shortly after the school year began. On a lazy, gray Saturday afternoon I wandered through the stacks until I came to one of those tall, plastic carousels. I reached out and gave it a good spin and, when it came to a halt, my eyes rested on a girl with a shiny sword and a bold title in swirling blue script: Alanna: the First Adventure. She looked…unflappable. She looked…prepared for what lurked behind those black towers. And I liked the title. How bold her name was, pretty and strong at the same time. And did I mention the shiny sword? I took Alanna home with me and was sold from the very first page.

“That is my decision. We need not discuss it,” said the man at the desk. He was already looking at a book. His two children left the room, closing the door behind them.

“He doesn’t want us around,” the boy muttered. “He doesn’t care what we want.”

“We know that,” was the girl’s answer. “He doesn’t care about anything, except his books and scrolls.”

The boy hit the wall. “I don’t want to be a knight! I want to be a great sorcerer! I want to slay demons and walk with the gods–”

“D’you think I want to be a lady?” his sister asked. “‘Walk slowly, Alanna,’” she said primly. “‘Sit still, Alanna. Shoulders back, Alanna.’ As if that’s all I can do with myself!” She paced the floor. “There has to be another way.”

Those first few lines still give me chills. Because from page one you knew, you just knew you were in for something special. The two children who seem to understand their father with a perspicacity beyond their years. Two siblings who want such different things from their lives, who have dreams so large their world may not be able to hold them. A boy straining against the bonds of convention and a girl determined to find a way out for them both. All this from a few lines! Loyalty, determination, a hint of the supernatural. Before I knew it I was deeply embroiled in Alanna’s life as she came up with and carried out her plan to switch places with her twin brother Thom and go to the capital to train to become a knight. And, with her, I met a whole host of new people from all walks of life, princes and stable boys, professors and thieves. Especially thieves…

I’d never read about a girl like Alanna before. She knew what she wanted and, come hell or high water, she would have it if hard work could get her there. She was always herself and never, not once, too stupid to live. This is not to say she didn’t make mistakes. But she owned up to them, she learned from them, and she never took her friendships for granted. Alanna was that elusive character–someone my twelve-year-old self could both admire and feel a kinship with. She dealt with magic and sword fighting and the gods, and yet she struggled with the very same things I came up against in this world. When she grimly dealt with her changing body, I felt her pain and frustration. When she awoke shaking from nightmares of the obstacles and responsibilities awaiting her, I gulped along with her and wondered if I would be strong enough. I read the entire quartet every year after that. For several years. And then, after awhile, I started reserving it for the “serious cases.” You know the ones I mean. Those times when you find yourself thrashing around at loose ends, turning from this book to that, desperately in need of something to take you away. Whenever I’m overworked, underslept, and in need of a comfort read in the very worst kind of way, I curl up in bed and rejoin my Tortallan friends. And isn’t it something how once I was twelve and they were so new and I couldn’t bear to put the books down at night so strong was my need to find out what would happen? And now I’m a mother and they are old friends and I return to them over and over again and can’t put them down because they are comfortable and Alanna is there. With Jonathan and Myles and Faithful and Gary. And George…who will always make me laugh.

A couple of years ago DH and I were driving home from some event, talking about our upcoming visit to my grandparents, when out of the blue he turned to me and asked if I would read the Alanna books aloud to him on the drive. I burst into tears on the spot. Because he knew how much these books mean to me. And he thought it was time he saw what all the fuss was about. Naturally, he had the good sense to think they are as awesome as I do and didn’t even laugh when I cried at the same four parts I always cry at in the last book. He just reached out and took my hand. And when I’d gathered myself we went on together. There is nothing like reading these books for the first time. But as any true bibliophile knows, sharing them with others is an even sweeter experience, whether it be in person with a loved one or via the internet with a kindred spirit you’ve never met before in your life. Alanna is always there. Ready when you are.