Tamora Pierce is a lover of strong female role models and most of her books are aimed towards young women ages 8 - 16. The Beka Cooper series is aimed at an older audience however (I'd say 14 to 30) due to it's size and complexity and not trying to teach life lessons. That being said the series is perfectly wholesome so if your pre-teen is an advanced reader, by all means get them this series.
For a run down of the world of Tortall as a whole see my first review of Alanna, The First Adventure. Book One of the Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce.
Beka Cooper Series
The Beka Cooper Series is one of Pierces more recent releases and so it's not following the her earlier standard of releasing Quartets. There are three books in this series and it's based on the life of George Coopers ancestor some 400 years before the storyline of the Song of the Lioness.
The books traditionally open up to a journal entry by Eleni Cooper, Georges mother being endlessly frustrated at her boy choosing the life of a rogue and wondering if her ancestors were turning in their graves due to them being proud Provost Guards (equivalent of Police).
Terrier
Beka is still a 'Puppy' but she now get's assigned to a pair of fully trained 'Dogs'. Dogs always paired. A Dog doing a round on their own with no back-up is likely a dead Dog, especially in the slums of Corus (Capital city of Tortall).
Beka is favoured by the Lord Provost. Though she grew up in the slummiest slum of the slums on a street called Mutt Piddle Lane no less. But when she was young, a man her mother was courting, beat her mother badly and stole soe jewelry. Beka proceeded to follow him and found out he was part of a wanted gang. Tried reporting the Dogs, they ignored her, then went to HQ, they kicked her out. She found the Lord Provost himself riding through the city and grabbed his horse. He listened to what she had to say, rounded up the Gang and had them all caged.
What Beka didn't know was that the Lord Provost was being urged by the royalty to either fix the gang problem or resign. Beka had effectively saved his career. To repay her assistance he took her and her family off the street, giving them a chance at a better life and trained Beka in what it takes to become a Provost Dog.
Due to her history living in the slums, Beka chooses to be recruited into the Lower City HQ (called Kennels) despite the fact that the Lower City Kennels get less Protection Money income than other regions. In between the Provosts favour and her extra training Beka is given to the two best Dogs in the Lower City; Clara Goodwin and Matthias Tunstall. Tunstall is pleased. Goodwin is pissed. Goodwin and Tunstall have never before accepted a Puppy. Goodwin gets told by the Sergeant too bad and deal with it.
We also find out that Beka has an inherited gift that runs on her fathers side. She is able to hear the Voices picked up in the wind and captured by dust spinners(whirlwinds) that tend to occuron the corners of streets where cross winds occur. In Tortall, pigeons are the Black Gods couriers, ghosts of the dead who died unexpectedly, violently or with unfinished business, ride on the wings of the Black Gods couriers until they find peace. Beka feeds the pigeons to hear what their ghostly riders say have to say.
This is the story of Bekas first few months as a tag along Puppy with the best and baddest Dogs in slums. Beka befriends rogues, beggars and knights alike. With help from her gift, her friends and a familiar purple eyed black cat, Beka earns the nickname of Terrier.
Thoughts
This series is a gem. It's easy reading but wonderfully descriptive. Pierce has done really well in writing this because she's written alot of the speech in lower city tongue. There is a glossary in the back of the book but most of the terminology is easily interpreted by the context, like: 'keep your scummer covered ticklers away from me, you murrain ridden mumper' translates to 'keep your dung covered fingers away from me, you plague ridden beggar', and most of the sentances aren't that heavily laden with lower city terminology.As a fan of the tortall universe I love the references big and small that relate to the other series. Major one being Beka's cat Pounce being the same black furred, purple eyed Star Cat as Alanna's cat Faithful.
It is mentioned in the Song of the Lioness series that there hadn't been a Lady Knight in 400 years. We get to meet Lady Sabine of Macayhill
It is mentioned in the Immortals series that there were immortals in Tortall some thousand years ago and that there was a major war to get them sealed into the Immortal Realms. There are areas of the City known to Beka, where battles with Spidrens and Stormwings were fought.
We also find that Tortal has slaves during this time. We also find that there is a country during this time called Barzun to the south of Tortall which in the Song of the Lioness is actually part of Tortall.