A Company of Swans is a much more mature novel, aimed at older teens, and even adults. The Dragonfly Pool is decidely a middle grade novel focused on the concerns of children around age 12. What surprised me was the difference in reading level and subject matter between the two books. Eva Ibbotson has such a way with words, and the audiobook narrator, Patricia Connely, has the perfect voice for bringing her stories to life. Though it took me longer to get into this book, I wound up liking it almost as much as The Dragonfly Pool. Everything would be perfect for Harriet, if only her father weren’t coming to find her. and falling in love with Rom Verney, the owner of the opera house where the company performs. In the ballet company, Harriet meets girls with much more life experience than she has, but she manages to hold her own, becoming friends with her fellow dancers. When she is offered a spot in a dance company traveling to the Amazon, her family forbids her to go, but unable to stand her oppressive life any longer, she defies them, sneaking off to become a ballerina. Her father and aunt Louisa both want her to be a dignified young woman and someday marry a stuffy entomologist named Edward Finch-Dutton. Harriet Morton, the daughter of a Cambridge professor, leads a very sheltered life.
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