Grrl Power: Tortall and Other Lands

Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales (Beka Cooper) by Tamora Pierce provides a set of stories featuring primarily young women struggling to assert their power.  Often their society restricts females in particular, leading to quite a few male disguises.   Most of the stories take place somewhere in Tortall, sometimes using characters from previous books.  I like the action and the clarity; even murky situations have a comforting clear resolution.  My sixth grade boy also enjoyed the book.

In "Elder Brother", my favorite part was watching the (disguised) girl's double-take on learning that Qiom's self-identity as an ex-tree is not a metaphor, but a literal history.  Reading "Nawat" I was left mainly with the impression that Pierce hasn't been near infant twins, let alone triplets, but I doubted whether my son even noticed the baby care anomalies.  And "Lost" features a mathematician heroine, which won my heart despite the standard plot.  Recommended mainly for fans of her existing series, the stories don't break new ground but provide good landscaping for familiar territory.