Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Don’t skip this series just because they books are children’s novels, please!

Sandry's Book by Tamora Pierce

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BINGO – Gateway – author Tamora Pierce and children’s novels Sandry is the sole survivor of a pox outbreak that killed her entire family; she carries with her the trauma of that loss and being locked in a dark room for months to be safe from marauders. Briar is a street boy with no home who has been caught stealing three times; his options are going to a temple or going to work hard labor at the docks or the mines. Daja is a trader […]

Go Kel Go Kel Go

Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce

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And with this, the final chapter (so far) in Kel’s story, we finally see our stoic fledging come into her own as Protector of the Small. I think this series maintains a tense, 4 star rating throughout, which is pretty impressive when I think of the number of trilogies/multi part books where I apathetically push through some middle bits to get to the Good Stuff. With these books, I found myself usually as intrigued by the middle bits as by the Big Stuff. In some […]

Closer to the end, the books get longer

Squire by Tamora Pierce

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I’ll say that I didn’t like Squire quite as much, even though my issues with it were largely mitigated by the opportunity to be around Raoul of Goldenlake. Similar to the Circle Opens series of books that followed the Circle of Magic books, Squire has us moving away from school and the rhythms of usual life. I suppose that’s why I would be a terrible Knight (although I’d squire the shit out of Sir Myles of Olau). Kel wants to go out and make a […]

Reading these books makes me feel very weak

Page by Tamora Pierce

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It’s now been a day and I have read almost 70% of the entire series. One of the things I like best about all of Pierce’s work is how much detail and time she gives to the little things, the everyday rhythms of life. Both First Test and this book are short (<250 pages, I believe) but you don’t feel like you were cheated out of journeying alongside Kel. Now, to be fair, the first book is only slightly shorter than the second and yet covers only […]

Once again, this time with feeling(s kept hidden)

First Test by Tamora Pierce

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I re-read the entire Alanna: The First Adventure series sometime last year (bought all the paperback books second hand, the same covers I had as a kid and everything). The order of Tamora Pierce’s books set in Tortall go: 1. Alanna 2. The Immortals 3. Kel’s books 4. ??? As you can tell, I did not get all the way to the end, because I instead started reading the Circle of Magic books which I think are excellent. I often wish that the two worlds one day […]

Take that pink ribbon off my eyes, damn it

First Year by Tamora Pierce

Page by Tamora Pierce

Squire by Tamora Pierce

Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce

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I was introduced to Tamora Pierce and the realm of Tortall in 1986 by a classmate of mine named Alec Deleon. He was reading a copy of Alanna: The First Adventure while in the library at lunchtime. I asked him why he was reading a book about a GIRL when he was a BOY in that know-it-all way that ten-year-olds have. He said I should try it since I liked The Hero & the Crown by Robin McKinley. Evidently that little jerk was actually paying […]



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