For fans of Frozen, The City of Ember, and The School of Good and Evil, The Mark of the Dragonfly is a fast-paced adventure story about a mysterious girl and a fearless boy, set in a magical world that is both exciting and dangerous.
Piper has never seen the Mark of the Dragonfly until she finds the girl amid the wreckage of a caravan in the Meteor Fields.
The girl doesn't remember a thing about her life, but the intricate tattoo on her arm is proof that she's from the Dragonfly Territories and that she's protected by the king. Which means a reward for Piper if she can get the girl home.
The one sure way to the Territories is the 401, a great old beauty of a train. But a ticket costs more coin than Piper could make in a year. And stowing away is a difficult prospect--everyone knows that getting past the peculiar green-eyed boy who stands guard is nearly impossible.
Life for Piper just turned dangerous. A little bit magical. And very exciting, if she can manage to survive the journey.
Praise for The Mark of the Dragonfly:
[STAR] “This magnetic middle-grade debut…[is] a page-turner that defies easy categorization and ought to have broad appeal.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred
[STAR] “Heart, brains, and courage find a home in a steampunk fantasy worthy of a nod from Baum.”-- Kirkus Reviews, Starred
[STAR] “A fantastic and original tale of adventure and magic...Piper is a heroine to fall in love with: smart, brave, kind, and mechanically inclined to boot.”—School Library Journal, Starred
“A complex and impeccably developed plot—there is plenty to recommend in this novel.”—The Bulletin
“Appealing characters and lots of action make it a good choice for young adventure readers.”—Booklist
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
57 of 60 people found the following review helpful.
Inventive, Fast paced and Fun
By R. Sperling
Some children's books are great cross-over books for adults (I particularly like N.D. Wilson). This book is clearly written for kids. I'd give it an age span of 10 to 14 in its readability and 13 or older in its content.The story is inventive, fast paced and fun. While some elements felt predictable to me, they would probably carry just the right amount of suspense for the 10 to 14 age group. I enjoyed the creative world building, including the different races. I also enjoyed the theme of finding a place of belonging. Again, the writing style is simple by the standard of adult literature, but this book isn't written for adults.However, since this book is targeted for a young audience, there are a couple of things that parents might want to be aware of.First, there is a scene where the main character, a girl of 13 years sees another character, a boy - also 13, naked and she returns to that moment a couple of times in her thoughts. While nothing is graphic it was an entirely superfluous occurrence and I wish it had been left out of the story.Second, there is a spiritual "character" of a creator goddess that pops up throughout the book. Again, it is a fringe thing and this being seems included primarily so the mortal characters will have something to curse when surprised or angry, but if you object to the inclusion of a spiritual being you should be aware that this is a piece of the story.
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
Magical Reading!
By Dii
Wow! Is it steampunk for kids? Sort of, but there is so much more, adventure, danger, learning to trust others and appreciate them as individuals. Most of all, The Mark of the Dragonfly is a fantastic journey into reading that will make even the most reluctant young reader unable to put this one down! The pace is fast, the details are not overbearing, slowing down the story. A younger reader has the chance to turn their own imagination loose and fall into the world of The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson!Young Piper is a scrapper, orphaned and alone in a world where survival is a harsh reality and watching your back is a way of life. Loyalty and friendships are rare, so when a young friend of Piper's is caught in a meteor field during a storm, she ignores her own safety to find and save him. Hidden from the falling debris, Piper watches in fear as a strange caravan is destroyed in the Meteor Field. As the storm abates, she finds a young survivor, rescues both the young girl and her young friend. The girl is a bit odd, but she carries an important tattoo that denotes she is protected by the King of a powerful and wealthy land. Seeing a chance to make money, Piper sets out to return the girl to her home. Danger and deceit follow them on a journey that, if Piper survives, will change her life forever. With the help of a magical boy who can shape shift and a journey on a classic train to a new world, Piper finds she has much to learn. But with her quick wit, her new found friends and evil nipping at her heels, this is an adventure to enjoy to its fullest!Jaleigh Johnson has built a world that one can see, feel and become part of. Her writing is clean, quick and full of the wonder that fuels a child's imagination, no matter how old that child is! Her characters come alive under her pen, sometimes quirky, sometimes snarky, but always feeling genuine, like the real deal! Sometimes as adults, we forget the power of a child's mind to fill in the blanks, thankfully, Jaleigh Johnson remembered! Wonderful reading and highly recommended for middle grade readers!
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.Innocent Fun - highly recommended!!
By Tim or Kastie
First - regardless of genre, I'm not into YA books. I like complex stories, complicated, tortured characters, and the adult themes that just aren't in YA given the targeted age range. That said, however, I truly enjoyed THE MARK OF THE DRAGONFLY as an innocent jaunt through a steampunk-ish, fantastical world.I'm intrigued by the idea of a realm where junk from our world lands during poisonous meteor storms. Although the story is slow to build, during this time the reader gets a good feel for the main character and her world - there is a subtly to the writing that allows the reader to fill in the blanks, such as references to Piper's father's clothing...the boots she wears, the jacket that's just a bit too large...the reader can feel Piper's sorrow in these things. She lives in a town where no one really cares for one another, yet she cares for a younger boy and his family watches out for her. That boy (Micah) and her memories are all she really has.Until trouble literally barges through her door.That's when the story takes off and the reader may find trouble putting this fantastic tale down.The other reviews do a good job of summarizing the story. And it's a good story! Of course little conveniences occur within the story that may not happen in real life...but hey! It's fiction and it's fun! Go along for the ride and enjoy it.Like other reviewers, I questioned the reason Micah was involved at all. But when the whole pictured is looked at, Micah is the mechanism that keeps Piper going forward. He's the person Piper cares for most in the world. If he didn't exist, one would wonder why Piper hadn't left her home sooner to follow her dreams and explore the world. Given Piper's circumstances, Micah can be seen as the reason Piper didn't become like the bitter, self-centered people in her town, and her care for him lends credibility to her risking her life for a complete stranger. Without Micah, Piper would have been a very different character and this story wouldn't exist.At the end, I found myself wondering about Piper's future. This book stands on its own with a solid story set within an imaginative world. However...I want to see more of Piper and Anna and Gee. I want to know more about their world. Does Piper get to see Micah again? What lies over the mountains? What's beyond the ocean? Why does our junk fall into their world? I have other questions, too, but those would be spoilers. The gist: I really thought more and more and more about this book after I finished it than I expected to.To me...when I first started the story, I could see it set somewhere on the frontier Hideyuki Kikuchi created in his Vampire Hunter D novels (big fan!) - but the world slowly began to become its own. I could also see this as a tale set on the Planet Gunsmoke from Trigun (again, big fan!). I could almost envision Milly and Meryl chasing down Vash the Stampede on the other side of the world. THE MARK OF THE DRAGONFLY has the flair of both of these titles, but with an innocence that one can sink into and just enjoy. The darkness and grit in the world is glimpsed but not explored like it would be in an adult title, which I liked and is appropriate for this genre.Pick up THE MARK OF THE DRAGONFLY and enjoy an innocent adventure into a fantastic world!
