This was a decent graphic novel adaptation of the book, but for me, a graphic novel will never beat the full text. The final book is also due to be in full colour, while the arc was black and white, which did take a lot of the experience away from me, but it didn't impact my rating since I know the final book will be different.

Thank you to NetGalley and Abrams Fanfare for an arc in exchange for an honest review

When I saw this book was being adapted and made in to a graphic novel, I was so happy.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ahead of release! I loved revisiting Tortall and all the wonderful characters. If you loved the original books or want to visit a magical world - this book gives so much.

The fresh take and newly added elements are definitely needed, and something I am sure the author Tamora appreciates - to bring the amazing Alanna to new readers.

A girl who wants to be a knight and fight as one. Prevented from doing so, because of her gender. So she swaps places with her twin Thom and heads off to train as a knight. What could possibly go wrong? I can't wait for the final copy to release and have it on my shelves.

Highly recommend this fantasy series to anyone who loves a good strong FMC, royalty, thieves, romance and magic.

I have kind of always wanted to get into Tamora Pierce's books. I remember reading one of them in elementary school and loving it. I'm really enjoying the graphic novel adaptations.
Alanna of Trebond wants to be a knight. Girls are not allowed to be knights, so she switches places with her twin Thom, cuts her hair and pretends to be a boy in order to train. At the beginning she is bullied and is the smallest and weakest, but she works hard and even befriends the prince. Alanna also has healing powers which she uses to save the prince. She ends up traveling with him to a faraway city that is close to a cursed city and they figure some stuff out I don't want to spoil.
I felt like this book had a lot more words than the usual graphic novel and it was quite long as well. I really got a feel for this world where women and girls are not allowed to be soldiers or knights or pages and this is all Alanna wants. This was a good graphic novel to have a lot of words since a lot of things needed to be explained.
The first half of the book was kind of slow paced, but it was really setting up for the explosive ending. The ending was really exciting and quite interesting.
The only thing that took away from the experience was that the art was black and white and I think in the finished copies it will be color. Absolutely no fault of the book since it was an arc. It was a little hard to distinguish between a few of the characters without the color, but I think that will be a moot point with finished copies.
I'm really hoping that the rest of this series gets put into graphic novel form because I'm loving reading Tamora Pierce's books this way!

The set up of the ARC for this was really hard to read, but I love this story and I love the art! I’m so excited to be seeing this in person. For the ARC itself doesn’t have the text in the speech bubbles so it was like a puzzle lol.

Tamora Pierce has always hard a special place in my heart and I’m so excited to see her novels adapted in different ways!

I always wanted to see her books turned into a TV show or movie and a graphic novel is honestly so close to this that it feels like a childhood dream is coming true!

Beautiful adaptation of one of my favourite series!

Song of the lioness quartet has a special place on my shelf and always has so when I found out there was a graphic novel I absolutely needed to read it!

The artwork is perfect and I could not have asked for more! I can’t wait to see the rest of the series made this way! Now I just need The Immortals and Daughter of the Lioness and I’ll be a happy book dragon!

Thanks The Abrams Books Team and Tamora Pierce for the amazing opportunity to read this in return for a review!

Received an eArc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Tamora Pierce books were my childhood. I loved The Immortals Series and then quickly read the rest of her Tortall books. The last series I read was the Alanna Series. Seeing a graphic novel adaptation happen made me so happy thinking these books can make it into a new generation’s hands. The copy I read was not finished, which made telling some of the side characters apart a little harder with no color clues, but even with that, it was an enjoyable romp. I would highly recommend adding it to a middle school or high school library.

I really wanted to like this, but because the words and images were not coordinated it was very hard to read and understand . I love the original story. Formatting issues with the digital ARC made this hard to review content.

This book sets the scene very nicely for what promises to be a great epic fantasy story.
Although the pace can be a little slow at some points, I felt that this was necessary to properly establish the world and its characters. The relationships between the characters are probably what I enjoyed the most, as well as the characters themselves. Alanna is wonderful, and I was immediately rooting for her.

I really loved the realism conveyed through her physical growth and how she copes with the changes in her body. Additionally, her determination to live the life she has chosen for herself, despite going against the tide of gender stereotypes in a world (and particularly an environment) dominated by men, is both inspiring and compelling.

The magic is a delightful bonus, and I felt the battle with the Ysandir provided some good initial context for how it works in this world.

Having read this as an ARC on Kindle, I’m not confident in commenting on the art, as I was only able to see the black-and-white outlines, which felt unfinished in some sections. However, this glimpse of the story was enough to make me want to get the finished book and the subsequent chapters of this series. I can’t wait to see where Alanna and Jon’s relationship goes, and I feel there is definitely some political intrigue lurking in Duke Roger’s character, which remains largely unexplored at this stage.

Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this wonderful story.

Song of the Lioness: Alanna (Song of the Lioness #1) by Tamora Pierce, 251 pages. GRAPHIC NOVEL. Abrams Fanfare (ABRAMS), 2025. $18.
Language: PG (1 swear, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG
BUYING ADVISORY: MS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: MANY
When Alanna (11yo) and her twin brother, Thom, are sent away by their father to become a court lady and a knight, respectively, neither are happy. So they switch places. Thom goes into training to become a sorcerer in the City of the Gods, and Alanna cuts her hair and calls herself Alan in order to be a page in training to become a knight.
While Alanna struggles with the long road to become who she wants to be, she perseveres, showing readers that victory is about more than magic and inherent talent. Alanna’s story captured me when I was her age, and reading this graphic novel version has brought it to life again for me—it even cleared up some confusion I didn’t realize I still had from when I read the series before. I loved how the illustrations enhanced my visualization of the action sequences and of the castles and world Pierce described.
Characters of various skin tones are depicted throughout the book. The mature content rating is for alcohol use, mild scary elements, mild innuendo, and partial nudity. The violence rating is for assault, war, death, and fantasy violence.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

I was elated to see that this story is receiving the graphic novel treatment. This book was one of my first fantasy action reads back in the 90s, so it holds a special place in my heart.

The author of the adaptation may have chosen to stick too closely to the source material at some points. I think that some different choices could have been made to update the story for the format and to keep the plot a bit more focused.

This early e-galley did not contain the full color art, so I do plan on picking up a completed copy to see the final results. Pre-teens who prefer graphic novels may enjoy this version, but I think I would recommend the original to most readers instead.

YA graphic novel remake from the popular Tamora Pierce Lioness series. A young girl disguises herself as a boy to become a knight.

This was one of the first fantasy books I was introduced as a teen and it was amazing to see the story adapted into graphic novel format with the potential for a whole new generation to discover this series and see themselves reflected in the story.

I really loved seeing Alanna's feelings towards her gender/gender expression more deeply explored in this format and I really hope to see the remaining three books in the series adapted as well.

The drawing and layout were well matched the the story and added such a wonderful extra depth

I didn't get to read this story as a book so the graphic novel is the first time I'm encountering it and I thought it was fabulous. Even though it is for people much younger than I, I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are some good themes and everything you'd want from fantasy, as well as plenty of heart. The tone is light despite some of the themes covered. All in all a fast and satisfying fantasy read which I am sure will be even more charming when the artwork is complete.

It's been years since I read the original books and this was a delightful way to revisit them! I do think a little bit of detail is lost in this format, but the story doesn't suffer for it. The plot moves along quickly and the art is beautiful, even in the unfinished version I was able to see. I'm very excited to see the final version!

A great introduction (or reintroduction!) to Tamora Pierce and Alanna.

Thanks to Abrams Kids and NetGalley for the early copy!

Song of the Lioness was a short, sweet romp through a whimsical fantasy world. As I read this as an ARC, the art hadn't been entirely finished and I believe the addition of colour will make this a vibrant and gorgeous piece. This graphic novel was lighthearted, but not without its serious moments and touched on some distinct topics including identity, bullying and elitism.

Ultimately, this graphic novel felt very much like the beginning of something. There wasn't much going plotwise as it seemed mostly to be worldbuilding and the establishment of characters and settings for later books. While this isn't a terrible sin, it did mean the storyline occasionally fell victim to unsettled pacing and unsubstantial moments. Despite this, Song of the Lioness was an easy, lighthearted, joyous read, perfect for fans of nostalgic fantasy. Thus, I rated it 3.5/5 stars.

Alanna: The First Adventure is the first book in the Lioness Quartet series. It features Alanna, who although born a girl, desperately wants to become a knight. In order to do so, she and her twin brother swap places. He goes off to become a powerful magician and she disguises herself as Alan, to become a knight.

This book is absolute perfection. Alanna and her adventures were my first foray into the wonderful world of Tamora Pierce’s Tortall. The power and feminism that is omnipresent within this series is magical. I love Alanna’s determination and strength. I also love the acceptance of her femininity and her magic that comes over the course of the book (and the series as a whole).

This book is the perfect gift for a 12-14 year old who loves fantasies, and I’m happy to report I still adored it as a 35 year old woman, several decades after my first read.

I read an ARC of the graphic novel version and I simply cannot wait to own a copy and see the gorgeous pages in colour. The adaptation was perfect, with exact language and wording from the original book, with the great visual addition.

Infinity stars, for my forever favourite.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced readers copy.

I love the world of Tortall, so I greatly enjoyed being able to read this graphic novel as an ARC! Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley.

The art style was so nice, and I really feel like it’s accessible to kids. I also love the story - Alanna was not one of the novels I had read as a kid, though I have read others set in Tortall! So I loved getting this story and learning more about this iconic character.

3.5 ⭐️ (rounding up)

Thank you NetGalley and Abrams Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I certainly enjoyed this graphic novel. The story was interesting with great progress on the plot. The characters were funny and kept me interested with learning who they were. I really liked George Cooper, King of Thieves.

The art was absolutely beautiful. The details in the last chapter were amazing, even if it wasn’t in colour yet!

I didn’t give this graphic novel a high rating because I feel like it lacked something but I’m not too sure what. I’d definitely be investing into finding what happens next though. The story is only just beginning…

I enjoyed this book when I read it years ago. I am not sure the graphic novel worked for me. There is much which lent itself to the graphic format but the book I remembered was not here. It should be an excellent introduction to Tamora Pierce’s writing which may not have otherwise reached the modern readership of 11 - 13 year olds. I also hope that it does appeal to both boys and girls as it is very much a book which emphasises friendship and equality above romance and bullying those you perceive to be weaker than yourself.

I love the original story. It was a big influence in what I read to this day. I was grateful to see most of the original included in the new adaptation. The most important pieces are there. My one concern is this is not really suited or adapted well for eBook version. The print will work out, but the parts that go across pages do not work with an eBook.