"I began writing a series of short stories for my 12 year old son Michael, to encourage him to read. The main character, Will, was loosely based on him, which made it more interesting for him." So said John Flanagan when he started out to write the Ranger's Apprentice series. He admits that when he created the character of Will in the Ranger's Apprentice, he was trying to show kids that you don't necessarily have to be big and strong to be a hero, a lesson that Ranger Will makes very clear in the twelve books that make up the series.
John Flanagan was born in 1944 and lives in Sydney, Australia. Early in his writing career, he wrote advertisements and TV shows before becoming a prize winning author of books for young adults.
The Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan. The first book in the Ranger's Apprentice series.
Fourteen-year-old Will has one great dream: to become a knight in the Kingdom of Araluen. If only he would grow!! As the smallest of all the orphans being kept by the Baron, his chances of being chosen for Battleschool are slim. When he is finally assigned an apprenticeship, it is his abilities to move across a field unseen, climb steep tower walls like a spider, and his great inquisitiveness that land him an assignment with the Rangers instead.
The next days are filled with learning about Rangers—they are the intelligence arm of the king’s forces. The next months are filled with practicing the skills Rangers use—knife throwing, stealth moving, tracking the enemy, listening in without being seen, and learning to work with his unstoppable pony, Tug.
In the meantime, Will’s friend Horace is having a harder time in his assignment at Battleschool. He is humiliated, harassed and beaten by three upperclassmen, and he thinks the authorities intentionally look the other way. A deep resentment starts burning inside of Horace, with a bitterness that threatens long-term trouble. He doesn’t realize that his instructors look at him as “a natural”, with the talent to be one of the great swordsmen of all time. Horace alienates his friends, including Will, and then they face life-threatening danger together.
Bigger trouble lies ahead as rumors of war whisper through the intelligence community, and Will joins his master in facing the dangerous beasts called Kalkara that are slaying the military leaders of Araluen.
Summary from www.theliteratemother.org
Will, the Apprentice Ranger Halt, the Master Ranger