Re-reading this (more like skimming, really, but I'm counting it) the second time around, I like the series much better. The first book started off a bit on the weak side but the series gets better exponentially and ends with a solid five stars.

I really like Kel and hope that we see much more of her, and not just the pitiful cameo we got in the Trickster books. ( )

"I've been shot at. I can bear it. I'm crying because my friend is unhappy and everything is changing."

"Is that what you're supposed to do?" Tobe asked. "Cry for your friends, though they ain't dead? Cry when things change?"

"If the changes are hard ones," Kel replied. "If they take away the things you knew were good."

I haven't read much of Tamora Pierce's works before, only a book with Daine (the name I cannot remember at the moment) for a school project when I was in elementary school. With my constant complaints about certain tropes of YA to my friend, I was given the Protector of the Small quartet by my friend Rokan to have a taste of what she refers to as "good literature." And with my friends, I never doubt their judgment with books, as they never doubt mine.

Protector of the Small is what I would like to call timeless literature. Of course, I feel like the effect would have been more impacting had I read this series as I grew up - to mirror Kel's growth and maturity. Perhaps I would have been a different woman had I read these books back then. But these books have affected me nonetheless.

Keladry of Mindelan wants to be the first Lady Knight in the kingdom of Tortall following Alanna's appointment as the King's Champion. This proves to be a difficult task, because of the stigma that surrounds girls becoming knights. To many, girls are the weaker sex, and knighthood is barred from them. Alanna herself cannot aid Kel, because it will be seen as favoritism.

In First Test, Kel undergoes her probationary year - if she passes her first year, Lord Wyldon will continue to let her train. This is the year Kel learns to face her fears, and her enemies. She befriends Nealan of Queenscove, or Neal and deals with bullying from Joren of Stone Mountain. She passes her first year, after taking command and saving her friends from spidrens during a week-long training session in the woods.

In Page, Kel continues her training as a page, for four years, until she can take the test to become a squire. She also develops a crush on her friend Neal, and hires a maid, Lalasa. She teaches Lalasa how to defend herself, and in the end, must decide between saving her or taking her exam.

In Squire, Kel is under Lord Raoul of Goldenlake's tutelage, where she spends 4 years training with him and his army, learning skills of jousting and command. At the end of her 4th year as a squire, she enters the Chamber of Ordeals in order to become a knight. Having survived the chamber, Kel is officially the first lady-knight in the realm after Alanna.

In Lady Knight, the last of the quartet, Kel and her friends have to fight in the Scanran War. Kel is left to command a refugee camp near the border, but when her camp is left destroyed and its children taken, its up to her to cross over the border to Scanra to save them from becoming a part of the killing devices plaguing Tortall.

Throughout the series, Kel has been shown a great deal of strength and perseverance in the face of adversity. She knows that because she is a girl, she will be treated as though she is some weak and fragile thing. But she proves them wrong, proves that despite being female, she still is just as strong and even stronger than her male counterparts. Time and time again, Kel is shown with a power to lead and take charge, but also, with a humble and modest heart, hence why she is "Protector of the Small." She saves baby griffins, protects her servants, and treats everyone with a sense of equality. Kel is a role model to everyone, and her own courage inspires in me a sense of strength.

Kel also goes through many of the ups and downs of teenager-hood and girl-hood and the way Tamora Pierce describes it - why can't other YAs be like that? Broaching topics of periods and pregnancy with such an openness. Kel had crushes and a boyfriend, but she knew in the end what she wanted, and I loved her for that.

Tamora Pierce writes timeless works that can be read over and over again, to inspire everyone to chase what they believe in, but also to not forget the people who are helping us get there.

"Gods all bless, Lady Knight." ( )

I could have sworn I read this years ago. Great fun! As satisfying as the original Alanna books ( )

For anyone who likes Tamora Pierce, this is a must-read. Great series about an ordinary girl who wants to become a Tortallan knight - and does! But there are great things in store for her, and she will be a pivotal figure in a northern war. ( )

Lovely as always. Four excellent books, tracking Keladry of Mindelan's path from probationary page through her first year as a knight - the first female knight (aside from Alanna, who concealed her sex until she was a full knight) in a hundred years or so in Tortall. She deals with sexism, classism, her own fears, and some really nasty enemies (both human and other) along the way, and she makes a real difference. My favorite Tortallan series.

Detailed reviews on the individual books in my catalog - tagged _Omnibus:PotSmall. ( )