I upgraded my rating of Tamora Pierce’s First Test from 3 stars to 4. Any book where I keep thinking about the heroine and wondering what happens in the rest of the series deserves better than just 3 stars.

Both books are part of the Protector of the Small series, the story of Keladry, a young girl who wants to train to be a Knight.

Keladry isn’t the first girl ever to seek the training, but she is the second, and the first in 10 years. Both the boys who are training, and Lord Wyldon, the man in charge of training potential knights, oppose her presence. Lord Wyldon even persuades the King to give Keladry a full year on probation as a trainee, unlike any of the boys.

First Test is the story of that year. Keladry is a tough girl, physically and mentally, and she won’t put up with bullying on any level. Before she goes off to Page School, she tries to rescue some kittens from boys who go to drown them; at school, she takes on the brutal hazing some of the oldest pages do to the new students.  Through it all, she wins over a few boys and develops friendships with some, and respect from most.

Actually, she reminds me of Jill. When my lovely wife was 6 or 7, she was the same proportionally small person she is now — and had the same much larger personality. A much bigger boy in her class was picking on some new kids, and she jumped him, yelling "Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?!"

My favorite part of this story is that she’d convinced her mother to buy her tiny little workboots. I picture her in a little Catholic school uniform and workboots, on the back of a boy a foot taller than she was and outmassing her by 20 or 30 pounds.

In The Page, Keladry returns for her next three years of Page School, so she can qualify to become a Squire, essentially apprenticed to a Knight. She and her friends continue to fight bullying, and Keladry works to overcome her own weaknesses, slowly softening even Lord Wyldon’s skepticism of her skills. Keladry shows further leadership when she and a group of her classmates are attacked by bandits, and when she rescues a young woman servant and protects her from rape and abuse at the hands of older bullying servants and other pages.

Keladry also has a way with animals. It begins in the first book, when she is almost-forced to take a horse that is too large and bad-tempered for a girl her age and size. She and the horse, with the help of a mage who can communicate with animals, develop a rapport. Keladry is also adopted by a family of sparrows, and in the second book, a dog.

Keladry is a great heroine for a tween novel, more on the model of Lyra Silvertongue than Hermione Granger, and I like looking at the world through her experience. Highly recommended, and I look forward to reading more of Tamora Pierce’s work.

I upgraded my rating of Tamora Pierce’s First Test from 3 stars to 4. Any book where I keep thinking about the heroine and wondering what happens in the rest of the series deserves better than just 3 stars.

Both books are part of the Protector of the Small series, the story of Keladry, a young girl who wants to train to be a Knight.

Keladry isn’t the first girl ever to seek the training, but she is the second, and the first in 10 years. Both the boys who are training, and Lord Wyldon, the man in charge of training potential knights, oppose her presence. Lord Wyldon even persuades the King to give Keladry a full year on probation as a trainee, unlike any of the boys.

First Test is the story of that year. Keladry is a tough girl, physically and mentally, and she won’t put up with bullying on any level. Before she goes off to Page School, she tries to rescue some kittens from boys who go to drown them; at school, she takes on the brutal hazing some of the oldest pages do to the new students.  Through it all, she wins over a few boys and develops friendships with some, and respect from most.

Actually, she reminds me of Jill. When my lovely wife was 6 or 7, she was the same proportionally small person she is now — and had the same much larger personality. A much bigger boy in her class was picking on some new kids, and she jumped him, yelling "Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?!"

My favorite part of this story is that she’d convinced her mother to buy her tiny little workboots. I picture her in a little Catholic school uniform and workboots, on the back of a boy a foot taller than she was and outmassing her by 20 or 30 pounds.

In The Page, Keladry returns for her next three years of Page School, so she can qualify to become a Squire, essentially apprenticed to a Knight. She and her friends continue to fight bullying, and Keladry works to overcome her own weaknesses, slowly softening even Lord Wyldon’s skepticism of her skills. Keladry shows further leadership when she and a group of her classmates are attacked by bandits, and when she rescues a young woman servant and protects her from rape and abuse at the hands of older bullying servants and other pages.

Keladry also has a way with animals. It begins in the first book, when she is almost-forced to take a horse that is too large and bad-tempered for a girl her age and size. She and the horse, with the help of a mage who can communicate with animals, develop a rapport. Keladry is also adopted by a family of sparrows, and in the second book, a dog.

Keladry is a great heroine for a tween novel, more on the model of Lyra Silvertongue than Hermione Granger, and I like looking at the world through her experience. Highly recommended, and I look forward to reading more of Tamora Pierce’s work.