First Test by Tamora Pierce [J Fiction]
by Kaitlin, 11th grader
The first book in the Protector of the Small quartet, First Test is about a girl named Keladry who is the first to take advantage of a law stating that women may become knights. However, most of the boys at the knight school don’t believe she’ll make it, and some of them are willing to go out of their way to make sure she doesn’t. But her troubles don’t end there; the training master decides that because she is female, she will be put on probation for one year. If she doesn’t meet his expectations, she cannot become a knight.
Instead of being like Tamora Pierce’s previous characters who all have special abilities, such as speaking to animals, Kel is a normal average girl who is strong, smart, and determined to forge a place for herself in a man’s world. Does she become a knight? Does she even get past her probation? Read and find out! (Note: you may want to read “The Song of the Lioness” and the Immortals quartet before staring Protectors of the Small so you can fully understand just who certain characters are, and so you can avoid spoiling parts of the previous plots.)
