Shelly's Book Blog

One of my favorite children's authors, Eva Ibbotson, wrote The Dragonfly Pool, so I of course wanted to read it. World War II serves as a backdrop to the story, but I would hesitate to give this book the "historical fiction" label because most of the story takes place in 1939, as the war is just beginning. Tally, the main character, travels to the countryside from her home in London to attend a rather unusual boarding school called Delderton, where children are not required to attend class and are encouraged to express themselves. At first she doesn't want to go because she is happy at home with her father and two aunts, but a school trip to participate in a folk dancing festival in Bergania soon changes Tally's attitude. Here she meets Karil, Bergania's prince, and they become friends, but events conspire to keep Karil isolated from his new friends. Then Karil's father is assassinated and the Delderton students must try to rescue Karil from suffering the same fate.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I have her others, perhaps because it was not written to be funny, as the others were. It's an absorbing and touching story, though, and I would certainly recommend it to young teens looking for something with adventure and a happy ending.