Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I loved this book! She didn't get through it so easily as in most books, she had to fight every step of the way. She had her fear of hieghts to contend with, that's what makes her such a strong character! This is a great book that definetly will inspire and make you read the next in the series!
Rating:
Summary: Different from Alanna, but great anyway
Review: I originally thought that this series would be just a carbon copy of the Alanna books. Well, I was wrong. yes, there are similarities (Kel is good friends with the prince for instance), but on the whole, it is very different. While the problems Kel faces are similar to the one's Alanna faces, they are quite different. Instead of being as good as the boy pages while pretending to be a boy, Kel has to be as good as the boys right through everyone's sexist ideas. She is also very unfairly put on probation - and must prove herself extra so she will be able to stay to her seconed year. Kel's character is also very different from Alanna's and she finds different forms of fighting challenging. There is a different training master and training to be a knight is considereably different now than before. Several characters from previous books made short appearances - Daine, Numaire, Roaul and a little bit of Alanna in the beggining of the book. Although the book doesn't mention it, i do think that Kel may have wild magic - although I don't know why niether Daine or Numair mentioned it to her. I also would have liked Alanna to be in the book a little more - I really like her. Kel recieves a few anonymouse presents which I think are from Alanna because she was not permitted to talk to Kel. This does hint to the fact that Alanna will have more space in the books to come. The style of Pierce's writing has changed since Alanna - it's not better or worse, just different. Overall, a good book. I can't wait for Page to come out in paperback!
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good.
Review: I think this book was all right, though not as memorable as the first novel of Ms. Pierce's other series. I agree with what someone said...a central villain is needed...several steps further than the bullies among the pages and the 'Stump.' However, I strongly disagree with what some readers are saying: that Kel is boring. She isn't boring at all... she just lacks the awful temper and sharp tongue that most of Pierce's previous heroines have. As for how one person said she lacked strength...not at all! It must take a lot of guts to be the only girl among so many boys, and be ridiculed by them. And about Kel being a 'nice girl.' I think Daine is a fairly 'nice girl' (even if she has a temper), and nearly everyone thought she was a great character. I like Kel's more predictable temperement, for a change, and I am very glad that she doesn't have any magic. (Alanna had TOO much magic, in my opinion, for instance.) Pierce still has her bad habit of elaborating too much on unimportant details. We don't NEED to know exactly what the pages ate for dinner, or every article of clothing that Kel put on for a certain day. I thought the ways that the bullies thought up of ways to torment Kel was clever, especially the weighted lance. The plot was a little slow. Kel is still a page at the end of the book, and she'll be a page in the next novel (I suppose, considering the title -Page-.) Maybe Pierce should speed things up a little (though I understand that the author needed to emphasize the trouble Kel went through). My other complaint is that there are too many names being thrown at the reader. It gets confusing at times. Some of the names we don't even NEED to know. Overall, -First Test- was a good book, with a solid character and a nice lead.
Rating:
Summary: First Test
Review: In fantasy, generally, the idea of girl turned warrior is overdone, and most of the time, very badly done. One main exception was the entire Song of the Lionness quartet, which I highly recommend reading before First Test. So, when I heard Tamora Pierce had written another book about a female knight - I looked to it with high expectations. Mostly, this book lives up to the previous Song of the Lionness quartet...in potential at least. Keladry is not as memorable a character as Alanna, and it is reading the surrounding characters that makes the book worthwhile. The minor characters and lesser protagonists have made much more of an impact in my mind than Keladry. The story at times is trite - but I won't hold that against it, that occurs in the best of the best fantasy and especially in 'young adult' reads. I mean, what can you do differently in a book about warrior training and facing difficulties with bullies, etc? Yet, despite that, it holds enough suspense that I am eagerly awaiting the next addition to the series. Overall, this book is worthwhile reading (especially since you get to see Alanna, Daine, and Numair among others again!), but I wouldn't classify it among Pierce's best.
Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!!
Review: Tamora Pierce has done it again. I never thought any book could be better than the Alanna Quartet, but this series proved me wrong. First Test, the first book in The Protector of the Small Quartet is about a girl who wants to become a knight. Keladry of Mindelan is put on probation her first year as a test for the training master, Lord Wyldon to decided if she should be able to continue on. This is the first test of many. The rest of the boys play tricks on Kel and try to chase her away. However, time and time again, Keladry proves that she is just as good and better than some of the boys under certain um, circumstances. Kel is a born leader. She saves the lives of her year mates and inevitably earns their respect, if not their friendship...
Tamora Pierce will draw you into this book, making you feel like you're part of the scene too. Tamora brings back a few old characters as well as she introduces new ones. This is a great book!
Rating:
Summary: First Test
Review: The third Tortallan series by Tamora Pierce, and the first of Keladry's series, this book is amazing. Like all Pierce's others, the imagination, suspense, and strong feminist point of view are superb.
Keladry (Kel) of Mindelan has just returned to Tortall after years of living in the Yamani Islands. There, while her family worked on a peace treaty between Tortall and the Islands, Kel learned Shang fighting. Back home at last, Kel is anxious to take advantage of the proclamation made ten years ago that women can try for knighthood. King Jonathon is willing to take her on (and the Lioness is thrilled), but the conservative training master is neither-he threatens to resign unless Kel is put on a probation period of one year and Sir Alanna kept away from her. Jonathon agrees, to Alanna's fury, and Kel decides to come. Once at the palace, she must endure the taunts of the other boys, the efforts of the training master to get rid of her, and the fact that the way she learned how to fight is not the same as what Tortallans learn. Through it all, she manages to make friends (a wayward 15-year-old page called Neal and an ornery horse, Peachblossom), put a stop to abusive hazing (older pages bullying younger ones), and become a strong warrior. At the end of the year, she even leads a spidren hunt--but will all this be enough for the training master to let her stay?
What more is there to say? This is such an intense, wonderful book-like all of Tamora's others, I've read it over and over, and will continue to do so until I can no longer read.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: This is one of my favorite books-possibly because of the main female character, the knights, or just because of the excitment. In this book, a 10 year-old girl requests to become a page after a proclamiton allows women to become knights. However, Lord Wyldon the training master, does not intend to let a girl slip in with the boys. After all, in his words, girls are 'fragile, more emotional, and easier to frighten'. Keladry agrees to probation, and shatters everybody's expectaitions on how good (and strong) a girl can be.
Rating:
Summary: THE Weird Sisters say, "It's exemplary!"
Review: We loved it! Not quite so much as the Alanna series, but better than Circle of Magic and the Immortals. (Sister 2: I fell asleep reading the Immortals series..but I liked the other series!). We hope Neal gets together with somebody (aka Daine)... (we know you fans of Daine and Numair will hate us, but we don't like him). We'd also love to see more of George and Alanna. And their children. (Sister 1: Yup-yup!!!) We loved this book cuz...Neal was a lovable, funny, amusing (the list goes on and on...can you tell, we loved Neal!) character and Kel was interesting, determined, and different from Alanna. We thought the fight with the spidrens was one of the better parts of the book. And, we liked the fact that Keladry found her own little nakama ("circle of friends"), just as Alanna did. We also want to find out more about Prince Roald and...Princess Chisakami! :) Wonder what will happen...^_^ maybe he'll ditch her and go for Kel. ^_^ (hint hint!) We can't wait for the next one to come out! Write faster, Ms. Pierce! ^_^ It's a great book everyone! Buy it!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: When I got this book out of the library, I didn't want to finish it until I could go on to the next book. When Keladry of Mindelan (Kel) goes to Corus to become a Lady Knight, she finds it harder than she expected. Battling against Lord Wyldon, the training master, Kel builds up a reputation for protecting the helpless. Thus, the name for the quartet,"Protector of the Small."
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Idea
Review: When I got this book, I thought that it would be pretty much the same as the Lioness series, but I was proved wrong. While this series has the same theme, about a girl going against the grain, trying to prove girls are just as good as guys, Tamora Pierce managed to make it completely different. The character, Kel, has her own personality, fears, and ambitions. Pierce tied many of her other characters in as well. Alanna the Lioness is what motivates Kel, along with her mother. This series isn't called the Protector of the Small series for nothing! As the story goes, Kel stands up for smaller kids, and ends up getting multiple black eyes, bruises, and trips to the "stump" for her efforts, making both friends, and enemies, along the way.
Over all, this book was funny, warm, and satisfying. I definitely recommend it to girls (and guys!) if your looking for a good read.
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