Protectors of the Small

I love it that my friend’s daughter just called me at 8:30 in the morning, desperate to borrow Page, the second book in the Tamora Pierce series, “Protector of the Small”. It’s a young adult fantasy series about a 10 year old girl who is the first to enter the royal school to become a knight.

You might remember the Lioness Quartet, about Alanna the Lady Knight, written around 20 years ago by Pierce. This new series ties into the Alanna books and I think it resonates better with young women & feminism today. It’s still about a woman entering a male-dominated field, and the challenges she faces — but its heroine, Keladry, is a lot less isolated from other women than Alanna was.

She also has her own personal flock of sparrows that are her friends, that go into battle with her. You really can’t beat that.

The phone call made my day, and I was thinking that she would not be able to understand why until she’s my age – the ways that passing on even a little thing like a good feminist book recommendation — to say “here is a story that will give you a source of strength, and a way to understand the world” — can renew an older person’s spirit.