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    Dragonfly Secret
    Dragonfly Secret
    Dragonfly Secret
    Ebook88 pages1 hour

    Dragonfly Secret

    By Carolyn J. Gold

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    Will a mysterious fairy keep Nathan’s family together or tear it apart?

    Nathan and Jessie love their cantakerous grandfather, who lives with them, but their aunt feels he should be in a nursing home, and she has contacted a social worker to evaluate him. One evening Grandfather and the kids discover a wounded dragonfly on their windshield. Upon closer inspection they see that the dragonfly is really a fairy, and they take it inside to nurse it back to health. The kids try to keep it hidden from the social worker, because they are sure if she thinks that Grandpa believes in fairies, he really would be taken away.

    In this warmhearted debut novel, Carolyn J. Gold shows how the quiet magic of nature can strengthen the bonding love between generations. This fairy is not overtly cute and sweet. It is a creature of nature that changes their lives.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAtheneum Books for Young Readers
    Release dateOct 13, 2015
    ISBN9781481466639
    Dragonfly Secret
    Author

    Carolyn J. Gold

    Carolyn J. Gold is the author of Dragonfly Secret, a Simon & Schuster book.

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    • 5/5
      I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.When the author asked me to review her book Ghosts Don't Do Homework I was all in. I love ghost stories. It doesn't matter if they are scary or funny. I've always loved them. When I opened the package she had sent me another of her books as a gift. I am so glad she did. Dragonfly Secret is the story of a family who has their grandfather living with them. Nathan and Jessie love having their grandfather live with them. On a visit to their aunt's house it becomes clear that their aunt believes their grandfather needs to be sent to a nursing home to live. There are several things I need to say here about the characters. The author did a wonderful job of fleshing them out. The aunt and her daughter are snooty, have money and are not very likeable. Nathan, Jessie, their grandfather and their mother are more down to earth type people. The grandfather helps out so that his daughter can work and raise her two kids. The grandfather owns an old farm. Their aunt thinks it should be sold. I immediately thought that she was in it for the money. I won't tell you if that is true or not. On the way home from their aunts house, they stop at the old farm and look around. When they get home they see a lady talking to the neighbor, whose cat is in their flower bed. The lady is a social worker that the aunt had contacted to come out and determine if their grandfather should be sent away. He is angry and when he goes to wash the car he sees a dragonfly. Upon closer inspection they realize it itsn't a dragonfly, but a tiny fairy. Now they have a problem. They must try to save this fairy and at the same time they must keep this knowledge from the social worker. If she thinks their grandfather believes in fairies then she might send him away. The story is full of real life problems. I love this author's work and would gladly read other books written by her.

    Book preview

    Dragonfly Secret - Carolyn J. Gold

    Chapter One

    My grandfather was out in the backyard of my aunt’s house, cussing a steady stream of words so nasty it was a miracle the grass didn’t wither and die around him, all because the lawn mower wasn’t running to suit him. He had to raise his voice to hear himself over its roar, and he raised it enough that everyone in the neighborhood could hear him.

    When Gramps can’t hear her, Mother calls him a cantankerous old grouch. The corners of her mouth always twitch when she says it, as if she’s trying not to smile. She knows he’s not really mean. He just likes to sound as if he is.

    His name is Nathan, the same as mine, but we always call him Gramps. He once told me he’d lived so long that all his friends were dead. He’s eighty years old, so maybe it’s true, but most everybody who knows him figures he never had any friends to start with. He isn’t what most people call likable, but Jessie and I love him.

    I sat on the back porch and fingered the bandage on my arm where I’d scraped it falling out of a tree that morning. One of my eyes was turning black from landing on my head. I looked as mean as Gramps sounded.

    Jessie sat beside me on the bottom step, wearing an almost new blue dress with a matching ribbon to tie back her red ponytail. Her ice cream melted slowly beside her. Our cousin Allison sat on the top step, wearing a frilly pink party dress and nibbling the icing off a piece of Gramps’s birthday cake.

    Jessie studied her spoon. I wish Gramps wouldn’t yell like that.

    He wouldn’t use that language if he thought we could hear him, I told her. It was true. She’s eight, and I’m twelve. Grown-ups think there are a lot of things we shouldn’t hear. They also seem to think children are deaf.

    "My mother says it’s a nasty habit and only bad people swear. My mother says talking like that will make your heart turn black." Allison gave a self-righteous little smirk and returned to digging a cherry out of her ice cream. She was six, but half the time she acted as if she was four. She had every toy Jessie had ever dreamed of, and if she played with them at all, it wasn’t when anyone else was around.

    Sometimes I wondered if Aunt Louise had bought Allison somewhere, to be sure she’d get a perfect child. Blue eyes, golden hair, never a speck of dirt on her shiny white shoes. Aunt Louise thought Allison was perfect. I thought she was a pain.

    Your mother doesn’t know Gramps, I said.

    I sighed and jabbed my fork into the big slab of birthday cake on my plate, smearing it around so it would look as if I’d eaten most of it. I don’t much like spice cake, anyway, and this one was the main reason we were here, instead of fifty miles away in our own backyard enjoying the lazy warmth of a summer Sunday.

    Every year, Aunt Louise insists that we spend Gramps’s birthday at her house, even though Gramps lives with us and hates to drive so far. I hardly ever get to see him, she says in a sweet whiny voice. He’s my father, too, you know.

    Every year, Mother gives in and talks him into going to visit his other daughter.

    You know darned well she doesn’t give a hoot about me, Kate, he always complains to Mother. She wants me in a nursing home so she can sell the old farm and spend the money on another highfalutin trip to somewhere nobody speaks English.

    Now, Dad, Mother soothes, straightening the collar on the old plaid shirt he always wears. You haven’t even been out to see the farm in ages. Why should you care? Louise loves you as much as I do. She just thinks that’s what would be best for you.

    He’ll snort and rub his nose, as if the big wart that grows there is suddenly itching something terrible. If she cared about me half as much as you say, she’d get me something I could use for my birthday for a change. Like a pair of socks, or a new jacket. I never in my life smoked any pipe except the one your mother gave me thirty years ago. Louise should know that by now.

    And finally we all pile into the car and make the trek to Hamilton, where Aunt Louise lives in her big modern house with her husband, Edward, the executive, and their perfect daughter, Allison. Just the way we had today.

    When we first got there, Aunt Louise fussed about my black eye as if it was something awful. Then we sat uncomfortably around the living room while she told us all about the cute, smart things Allison had done. We all smiled politely, except Gramps, who pretended to be deaf and just sat there frowning. He thought Allison was a pain, too.

    After a while Aunt Louise told Allison to get the present she had made for Gramps. She ran off to her room, flouncing white petticoats as she went, and came back with a package that looked as if it had been wrapped for the queen of England. It had gold paper and a gold-and-silver bow as big as a grapefruit. Gramps thanked her more politely than I expected.

    Now be careful and untie that from the back, Father, Aunt Louise said in her whiny voice. So you can save the bow. I bought it for you specially at Cuthbert’s. Cuthbert’s is a big store in town that has really expensive stuff nobody really needs. I guessed Aunt Louise thought that would impress us.

    Gramps muttered something under his breath and turned the package over so he could untie it from the back. The knots were all under the bow on top, though. After a minute Aunt Louise said, Here, let me help you, and grabbed it away from him. When she handed it back to him she kept the ribbon and bow.

    Gramps tore off the gold paper and Aunt Louise winced. I could tell she thought he should save that, too. Inside was something that looked like a white pancake that had been folded up around a tuna fish can. Gramps stared at it a minute, trying to figure out what to say.

    It’s an ashtray, Father, Aunt Louise said, beaming. "Allison made

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