The Dragonfly Pool
by Eva Ibbotson
Synopsis from Barnes and Noble
At first Tally doesn't want to go to the boarding school called Delderton. But she soon discovers that it is a wonderful place where freedom and self expression are valued. Tally organizes a ragtag dance troupe so the school can participate in an international folk dancing festival in Bergania in the summer of 1939. There she befriends Karil, the crown prince, who would love nothing more than to have ordinary friends and attend a school like Delderton. When Karil's father is assassinated, it is up to Tally and her friends to help Karil escape the Nazis and the bleak future he has inherited.
7 comments:
Okay, so I loved this story. It is an enchanting story filled with friendship, heroism, villains and good overcoming evil...and I felt it was wonderfully written and easy to read! At first I thought, "Oh no, not another Harry Potter Wanna Be", but this story took on a life of it's own. I can't wait to read it to my kiddo's!
This was a really cute story. I liked its originality. My favorite quote was on page 280
"Sometimes you meet someone - and it can be at any age or time - with whom you should go forward into the future."
I love a good story and the characters were cute and I really want to go and visit Delderton and Bergania.
I forgot my favorite quote:
"There is a saying that the landscape in which a child spends the first seven years of its life will leave a mark it cannot escape. A child brought up by the sea will always carry a longing for the ocean; a town child, reared to the sound of traffic and the warm bustle of neighbors, will never quite settle in the silence of the countryside."
Pgs. 373-374
Annell, This was a good summer read. It ended up being not as predictable has I first thought it would be. I love Pom-Pom and want Matteo for a teacher. What could be better then getting up early to hear the birds or laying in a meadow watching wildlife.
My favorite quote - Page 249 "Pride didn't come into friendship"
I admit I had to look up Bergania just to make sure it was not a country I hadn't heard of before.
Sorry I will miss book club, thanks for switching with me.
Pom-Pom was my favorite character, too. How can one not love a dog who was found "lying squashed under the duke," "(who was not dead though he ought to have been)," whose ancestors were the Khan's hot-water bottles? Really, now. If he weren't dead, I'd want him to breed with my dog. If I had a dog, that is.
My favorite line: "You cannot stop the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can stop them nesting in your hair" (279). How true, how true.
Oh, and I really like this quote, too: "He was twelve years old and small for his age, with brown eyes and brown hair and an expression one does not often see in the portraits of princes: the look of someone still searching for where he belongs” (101). I think this is one of my favorite quotes of all time.
And on pages 264-65:
"'Amphibians don't really need to be called anything," Borro had said. "They're all right as they are, so there's no hurry."
"Julia said that rabbits weren't meant to be interesting; they were meant to be nice, and this one was." Very cute.
Oh, and on page 271: "the food was quietly nasty." That's lovely.
Okay, I think I'm done. Are you sorry you asked?
I knew I was going to love this book when I read:
"But the only powder they could find was some talc that May used on her feet in hot weather, and once they had covered their faces with it they returned to the bathroom to wash it off. It would not help Tally to stand up under the blow that awaited her to be greeted by two white-faced clowns."
Page 6-7. That is something that I fear I would easily do.
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