Alanna: The First Adventure - Tamora Pierce

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
Series: Song of the Lioness #1 
Published on December 7, 2010 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Alanna of Trebond is no ordinary girl: her dream is to become a knight. So she disguises herself as a boy and begins training at the palace of King Roald. Alanna quickly finds out that the road to knighthood is not an easy one, but her skills and stubbornness help her become friends with Prince Jonathan and his followers. At the same time, Alanna makes an enemy of the prince's uncle, the overly charming Duke Roger.

Here begins Alanna's first adventure, one that will lead not only to fulfillment of her dreams but to a magical destiny that will make her a legend.

 I feel like I'm the last one coming to this party, everyone seems to have read Tamora Pierce's books when they were young and absolutely loved each one of them. Now, I finally can join the party - at least partially, since omg there is so much books by Pierce - and some things worked for me, others not so much. I will make a list because it's more practical and I'm lazy.

What I disliked:

1. The writing was too much show and not tell at times, I think this happened because this book passes through a long period of time, years actually, so it's understandable that some mundane tasks would be brushed over. But still, nothing really moved me on this writing, it was somewhat distancing from the characters and even on the action sequences I felt my attention span wavering.
2. This is a middle grade book and it shows. Not just on the simplistic writing but also on the little character development, the characters here are pretty simple and what you see is what you get, I'm a very character driven reader so for me this is kind of a big bummer, I hope that on the next books of the series we get to have more complex and emotional situations that show us some character development. 

What I liked:

1. Alanna is a great main character, she is not flawless (far from it actually) and I think she sets a great example for younger children. She is strong headed, determined and don't let her time period rules dictate who she will become.
2. The friendships that Alanna construct on the palace were pretty great too, I loved how they showed time and time again that they would stick to Alanna nevertheless of her actions because that is what friends are for (and it was adorable how surprised she was by it).
3. The action and the magical elements were pretty cool, I definitely want to read more about it on the next books, despite Alanna wanting to be a Knight and not a  deal with her gift I really think it will come in handy on her next adventures and I can't wait to discover more about it.
4. Despite the writing being simplistic once I picked up I only put it down when I finished, so it was really addictive and I just love books that give this urge to binge read them.

I will definitely be continuing with this series, even with my peeves it was pure enjoyment and such a great take on classical fantasy, I felt like watching/reading a book from my childhood. I would recommend it to young readers looking to a fantasy novel that isn't that heavy on the fantasy aspects, or anyone that wants to read something more on the classic feel of old fantasy novels. 

The False Prince - Jennifer A. Nielsen

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Series: The Ascendance Trilogy #1
Published on April 1, 2012 by Scholastic

THE FALSE PRINCE is the thrilling first book in a brand-new trilogy filled with danger and deceit and hidden identities that will have readers rushing breathlessly to the end.

In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king's long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner's motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword's point -- he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage's rivals have their own agendas as well.

As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner's sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.

An extraordinary adventure filled with danger and action, lies and deadly truths that will have readers clinging to the edge of their seats.

Eh, this book was a mixed bag for me. For one side I had fun with it, but at the same time it never really lived up to my expectations since I was hoping this would be a new (for me) fantasy middle grade series for me to love. It started good, we have a lot going on at the start with getting to know all the boys and the other characters, trying to guess were all of this is going but the pace slowed around the middle, when all the boys are just training was kind of boring, the end did picked up the pace again but some of my enjoyment was already lost.
The world building, so important on fantasy novels never really was alive for me, we have a map that is pretty simple (really is just a stretch of land, three names on it and some cities) and we do know about the political system which was the most common for fantasy novels, a monarchy, so despite trying it never stood out from another fantasy novels out there.
The characters seemed quite nice at first, Sage did had some funny liners that reminded me of Percy (from Percy Jackson) but soon he couldn't hold up the scene all by himself and unfortunately there was no other character to step up and make my interest grown, a big part for me not caring much about any of the other characters are the fact that they're so damn predictable.
This book is supposed to have a lot of twists on their characters but really, unless you're the actual age targeted audience, you will probably see all these twists with a mile range and unfortunately this does took away some of the fun.
In the end I don't regret reading this book and will probably continue with the series because it was a quickly read with some nice fantasy elements but if you're looking for a great middle grade fantasy serie there are better ones out there.

Wonder - R.J. Palacio

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Published by Knopf on February 14, 2012
Pages: 313
Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Coming of Age
Format: Hardback
Source: Purchased

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I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.

August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?

R. J. Palacio has written a spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels.


Wonder quickly become of my favorite reads, not only of this year but of all times and it’s easy to see why. The narrative of this story can be kind of childish for some people since it’s very straight forward, doesn’t make very turns to make things more pretty and also this story has a lot of show and not tell which usually bothers the hell out of me, but I only noticed it 20% into the book! This really shows how effective this narrative was in make me get into the story and connect with these characters and their feelings.

About the characters, it was a surprise to me when I looked inside the book and saw there was different POV’s and at first I thought it would make hard to get to know anyone but really it wasn’t, like I said the narrative is very simple making the feelings and personalities of each of this narrators really get out of the pages – all of them are so realistic and still so different. I think the narrative I most connect with was Via’s, she really got me teared up at so much times.

Also, this book is a lot more positive than I first expected, I mean I knew that it would end on a lighter tone but still I’m a big crier so expected to have some sobbing moments but no, I cried but always just a little bit – the narrative often goes from sad to lighter and funny. What made these turns so easy were the very short chapters, not making them weird turns.

 Anyway, I loved this book with all my soul, it carries an amazing message about bullying to kids, but I think adults/young adults also can get great things from this book. It’s an easy read, that really makes you think about people and the world around you and how you perceive it.

Recommended to: everyone really, it’s one of these books that I just want to push on everyone because I think every single people can take a message from it.