THE DRAGONFLY POOL

I’m usually wary of “new” (which for me is post-1990) YA books (for pete’s sake, I’m still trying to catch up on all the classic ones), but when I read about this one by Eva Ibbotsen, it sounded too good to pass up—for one thing, it includes both boarding school and World War II, two settings for which I have an unabashed weakness. For another, although it may have been published in 2008, this is good old-fashioned children’s literature in the best sense: sweet, quaint, eccentric, funny, intelligent, level-headed, and timeless (other examples: Hilary McKay and Jeanne Birdsall’s Penderwicks series). I was entertained and thoroughly charmed, and am afraid I might have to explore other Ibbotsen books—OK, possibly all of them. Best line:

The snooty Verity turned out to be the best at dancing, which was a pity but the kind of thing that happens in life.