Alanna: The First Adventure

Alanna: The First Adventure is a fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, originally published in 1983 and the first of four books in The Song of the Lioness. Pierce first drafted a single novel aimed at adults and then revised it into a series for younger readers, and the four books follow Alanna from page to knight.

Alanna of Trebond has always wanted the adventure that is allowed to boys, and her father intends to send her to a convent while her twin brother Thom is sent to study sorcery. The two of them swap places, and Alanna arrives at the castle as Alan of Trebond, a page who has to learn swordplay, riding and court manners while concealing the fact that she is a girl.

The novel follows her first years of training and the friends and enemies she makes there, keeping the practical detail of the work in view. It was followed by three more books about Alanna, and the world of Tortall became the setting of several later series.