A Can’t Miss Author: Tamora Pierce

Hello everyone,

In the past month, I have continued to dive deep into some rereads, especially as I use audiobooks to alleviate anxiety. There is something really calming about listening to books you know and love when your brain is going a million miles an hour, and for the past few weeks, Tamora Pierce has been that for me.

So today, I want to take some time to explore the world(s) of Tamora Pierce, along with looking at what it is that makes her books SO great. These are absolutely my favorite middle grade/young adult books, and I especially love the way they encourage positive behaviors and normalize diverse identities without ever beating anyone over the head with it. If you have young folks between the ages of 8 and 14/15 in your life, I highly recommend that you introduce these (and they make for great read aloud books as well because they are interesting enough to be fun for adults too!)

Tamora Pierce started publishing books in the 1980s, and tested her initial work on teenage girls who lived in a home that she was working in, so from the beginning, her work was aimed at and was for young people (most of these books have female protagonists, but they are absolutely good for boys as well). Her early books are more middle grade, and her later books expand and introduce more young adult themes, including different gender identities and sexualities.

All of her books emphasize the need for practice, discipline and hard work to achieve goals. There is magic, but magic is never something that is taken for granted, and is portrayed as something that needs to be channeled, practiced and honed just as any other skill. She does these “montage” scenes where her characters grow over time, and take a real world amount of time to learn things (instead of just having protagonists pick up skills overnight like so many books do).

Diversity of all kinds exists in these books, and later books include references to different kinds of sexuality and gender identities. What I love most is that all this is referenced in such a way that this is part of the world, but not the center of the plot. It is often taken for granted by the characters themselves, and allows people to identify with characters and then (hopefully), see this as normal in themselves. Most of these series are coming of age tales, and they include introductions to all that that entails, including periods, sex/relationships (never explicit), consent and birth control. This is done in an age appropriate manner, but covers things accurately and well.

In addition, over the past 40 years, as her (and the general culture’s) understanding of things has developed, she has directly addressed identities in her earlier books, where she either didn’t have the right words or wasn’t able to write the relationships and identities she envisioned. For example, there is a pair of women who are described as “dear friends” in earlier books that are pitched to younger readers, but in later books, aimed at young adults, they are directly referenced as a couple.

One of the things that I think Tamora Pierce does well is adapting real world cultures and creating worlds where they are identifiable but also different enough to not feel appropriative (at least to me). For example, in one book, we find ourselves in a Greek/Romanish city state, with a class system that feels reminiscent of India, but a monotheistic religion. All of this works together and feels real and identifiable (and leads to a funny scene where one character remarks that a governing system in which people are elected makes no sense).

Below is a pretty comprehensive look at her work, with suggestions for ages and appropriateness might be interested in them! I will say that Pierce works hard to incorporate reality into her fantasy. Nothing is explicit, but bodies and relationships are there (this is the only book I have read where people casually mention the need to use the privy), and discussed in ways that emphasize knowing the facts of life, tolerance and consent. A parent/responsible adult who feels strongly about what their child is exposed to may want to pre-read these or read them out loud to younger kids so they can help their child understand and process certain sections or skip them if it really isn’t appropriate.

Tortall Universe

Pierce’s first books start in the Tortall Universe, which is a pseudo medieval European world (but with magic). As the books continue, we are introduced to a variety of other cultures, including countries and places seemingly based on Japan, Egypt, Indonesia, and Tibet. However, the country of Tortall, which is European-ish (with a Middle Eastern desert and nomads in the middle of it) remains the central location.

There are 6 main series in this world (5 completed, and one still being published). All but one of these books covers a similar cast of characters, which means we get to see certain characters as kid and then as adults, and that mixture is one that makes this world incredibly rich.

The main series are:

Beka Cooper: A Tortall Legend – These are geared to older (young adult) readers, and this story takes place about 200 years before the other series. Beka is a trainee cop, and while there is magic and mysteries, these books also have a familiar, “procedural” element that is kind of fun.

Song of The Lioness (Alanna) – These are the first books that Tamora Pierce wrote, and as such, they are probably the only books I would say feel a little dated. Alanna is a young girl who switches places with her brother and trains to be a knight. The books cover her training and her early years of knighthood, and are wonderful. There is talk of periods, romance, and implied sex, but in an age appropriate way. These are great for reluctant middle school readers who need something with more complex themes or younger readers who are ready for some more complicated stuff but not interested in “adult” books.

The Immortals (Daine) – The writing level and subject material of these books is similar to the Alanna books, with some dark themes that are explored in a way that is really accessible to young readers. Daine is a young girl who escapes bandits and ends up in Tortall, and we see a ton of characters from the Alanna books. She has animal magic, and these books are full of magical and nonmagical creatures, and great for the animal lovers and wannabe vets out there.

Protector of the Small (Keladry) – This series is for the older middle grade-young adult readers, and it was written a lot more recently, so the books are a bit longer and much more complex in terms of themes. Keladry decides to become the first girl to openly train to be a knight in Tortall (Alanna disguised herself). She is the only protagonist in a Tamora Pierce novel without magic, and this book is exceptional for it’s detail in terms of training and work ethic.

Tricksters (Aly) – These are also good young adult books, and they are about Alanna’s daughter (yay!), when she runs away from home in a fit of teenage rebellion and ends up embroiled in an uprising on the neighboring Copper Island (based on the Philippines, and the culture and palaces of Indonesia, but with wildlife from Central and South America). This is a duology, and while I really love it, it is probably the only one in the set that I wouldn’t start people on since it relies so heavily on characters from the other quartets.

The Numair Chronicles – This is a series in progress, so I don’t have a sense of the final product, but it is the only one in this list with a male protagonist, and it covers the early life of Arram/Numair, who is a main character in The Immortals series, as he gets his education as a mage, and befriends the future emperor of Carthak, a fellow student. From the beginning, we know that he ends up exiled in Tortall, but this series is going to show us how that happens.

The Circle Universe

Tortall is where Tamora Pierce has been the most prolific, and it is a truly wonderful world, but I think I actually have a slight preference for the Circle Universe. These books follow a specific set of people (all mages), and they focus on magic that is skill/craft based. The world itself is similar to the Tortall Universe in that the primary place is a European city/state with a lot of diversity in places that are visited. The main characters are more diverse in this one, with multiple skin colors and cultural backgrounds.

What makes me love these books so much is that they are not about “heroes”, but about a group of people who have an affinity for things like gardening or sewing and find out that that affinity is actually a kind of magic. I also love that while even the Tortall books usually include some sort of love interest or romance for the main character, these books are about friendships and mastery of craft, and in all these books, there is only one romantic relationship on the page (a same sex one at that) and it isn’t central to the plot.

Also, one of the things about this universe is that, despite the fact that all four main characters are orphans, their relationships with the adults in their lives, especially their teachers, are so healthy and nurturing! These adults treat them like the kids they are, set reasonable limits (and consequences), and give them so much healthy love and care. Also, they are more powerful and more knowledgeable, and there is no “now I know more than all the adults around me” plot points, which I really like. There is something that feels so wholesome and sweet about this, but I also have a hard time thinking of other books in which (healthy) adult relationships are central to the story and I think this is so important for kids.

The Circle of Magic

Of all the books in this list, these are the most “middle grade” of them all. The main characters, Briar, Tris, Sandry and Daja, are all kids, and while the things they deal with are difficult and challenging, there is no romance or anything like that. These books, each of them told from the perspective of one of four friends, cover their first year together as mages, as they learn about their power (in sewing/cloth, weather, smith work and gardening respectively) and go through a series of challenges, from an earthquake to a pirate attack to a forest fire to an epidemic. Even the conflict here is rarely violent, and the things they face are, for the most part, natural disasters instead of war or rebellions.

These four kids are the center of the remining books, and their friendship becomes the central relationship of the whole universe. This is really powerful for young people when you think about the way that romance is so often the central relationship in so much of the fiction we consume – it is a powerful and really sweet message.

The Circle Opens

This second quartet covers individual adventures of all four characters as they explore the world with their teachers and have to become teachers themselves. Every single one of them discovers magic in someone and has to become a teacher, and they all do it in a unique way, so these books get progressively more interesting instead of repetitive. These books have no romance or mention of sex, but the themes are darker (someone is murdered in all four of these books), so I would still classify them as young adult. Of all the books in this post, these 4 are probably my favorite set of books, in part because I think the absence of war or romance and emphasis on personal growth are really unique in this genre.

These books CAN be the first books you read, but reading the first 4 books definitely helps. If you have a reader who doesn’t want to read “kid” books, you can use these to get them hooked, and then go back to the initial ones too!

The Circle Reforged

These three books are really three very different stand alone books, and they all add a new element to things!

The Will of the Empress – This is really the “Circle Reforged” book, and it is most definitely Young Adult. Briar, Sandry, Tris and Daja, the four main characters, come back together after years of adventures, and they have to relearn how to work together. The conflict between the four is slightly jarring after their love and trust in the earlier 8 books, but the journey they go on together as they take their former childhood connections and forge adult friendships is really great.

Sandry, who is a noble, has to go back to Namorn (Imperial Russia-esque) to visit her lands, and her three friends go with her, although the four of them are not getting along. They are 18 in this book, and that means that for the first time, there is romance and sex and more adult content (nothing explicit – they usually talk about it as “sharing a bed”), bit their friendship and relationship to each-other remains the central line of this book.

Battle Magic – This book IS about war and violence, and while I remember it being good, I also remember it being a pretty dark read. This is a book about war that leads to Briar, one of the four main characters, getting PTSD, so it isn’t a “glorious” book about war in the least.

Melting Stones – This book was originally an audiobook, and it covers the adventures of Rosethorn, Briar’s teacher and Evy, Briar’s student. It is not one of the books I have read and reread, so I don’t remember it well, but I think there was a volcano involved.

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The funny thing is, I wrote this as an adult thinking about messaging for kids, so I want to add one thing to this post. On top of all the wonderful messaging and good role models, these books are simply really fun and exciting! The Tortall ones have fun battles, they all have great magic. There are animals that talk, gods and dragons, epic quests and really wonderful descriptions of cultures and places. They hold your attention and make it fun to read (and who doesn’t want that!?!)

I hope this inspires you to go out and get these books for some special young person in your life, or better yet, to read them alongside that person!