Alanna

One of my all-time favorite fantasy novels, and the one that got me hooked on fantasy as a girl – Alanna is the ultimate scrappy heroine and I dreamed of being her when I was growing up.

Alanna has a black cat companion, which may or may not have influenced me to adopt a black cat as an adult.

At the time I read it, I’d never heard of a woman wanting to be a knight before – Alanna helped me realize that all glass ceilings can be shattered, and this remains one of the most re-read novels on my… show more.

One of the first books I read as a young girl which made me realise that I could be a fantasy hero, we follow Alanna—the eleven-year-old protagonist who longs to be a knight and so disguises herself as a boy in order to train. At the time of its release in 1983, other fantasy books were filled with male heroes and mentors, wizards, and knights. This book broke that mould. Alanna must fight against the established patriarchy to learn the ways of a knight, and along the way she begins to question what it is to be female. An essential… show more.

This first book in the Song of the Lioness series was one of my entrees into fantasy. It follows a girl who dresses up as a boy and takes her brother’s place studying to be a knight in a magical feudal world. Alanna perseveres despite many challenges, all while maintaining her secret, and over the series, she becomes the first Lady Knight.