Abandoned by the priestess of the island at birth, Aissa is an outcast, surviving by her wits - until she joins the acrobatic bull dancers who are sent away to compete on the island of the Bull King. A gripping and powerful adventure by acclaimed author Wendy Orr.
WINNER: 2018 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, Children's Literature
HONOUR BOOK: CBCA Book of the Year, Younger Readers, 2017
There are two ways of looking at Aissa's story. She's the miracle girl who escaped the raiders. Or she's the cursed child who called the Bull King's ship to the island.
The firstborn daughter of a priestess is cast out as a baby, and after raiders kill her adopted family, she is abandoned at the gates of the Great Hall, anonymous and mute. Called No-Name, the cursed child, she is raised a slave, and not until she is twelve does she learn her name is Aissa: the dragonfly.
Now every year the Bull King takes a tribute from the island: two thirteen-year-old children to brave the bloody bull dances in his royal court. None have ever returned - but for Aissa it is the only escape.
Aissa is resilient, resourceful, and fast - but to survive the bull ring, she will have to learn the mystery of her true nature.
A riveting, mythic Bronze Age adventure from award-winning author Wendy Orr.
Author bio:
Wendy Orr was born in Canada, and grew up in France, Canada and USA. After high school, she studied occupational therapy in England, married an Australian farmer, and moved to Australia. They had a son and daughter, and now live on five acres of bush near the sea. Her books have won awards in Australia and around the world, and have been translated into twenty-six languages.
Although Wendy first learned to read and write in French, her family spoke English at home. She clearly remembers the excitement of reading a story in her own language for the first time. She immediately started writing stories, and hasn't stopped since.
Wendy has had many highlights in her writing career, including winning the CBCA Book of the Year and walking a red carpet with Jodie Foster, but believes that nothing compares to the thrill of the first vision of a new book.
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Teachers Notes
Teachers Reviews
Wendy Orr’s latest book is the epic story of Aissa, the daughter of a priestess, abandoned as a baby because she is imperfect, and raised as a slave. When she is twelve years old, she learns her name is Aissa - the dragonfly. Each year two thirteen-year-olds are chosen by the Bull King for the bloody bull dances in his court. None has returned, but for Aissa, surviving the bull court is her only chance of escape from slavery.
Dragonfly Song is set in the Bronze Age and delivers an evocative recreation of the culture of ancient Crete. The day to day lives of the people of this time and place are vividly described. The story is part prose and part verse, which will be challenging for some readers. However, the author controls this narrative with ease and the transitions from prose to Aissa’s internal dialogues, delivered in verse, are handled seamlessly.
Wendy Orr is adept at creating wonderful female characters, for example, Nim in Nim’s Island and Raven in Raven’s Mountain, and Aissa is no exception. She is a complex character - highly intelligent, with great stamina - but above all she is resilient. Her story is bleak, but ultimately filled with optimism as she transcends her circumstances.
Dragonfly Song is a gripping adventure, beautifully crafted, which will appeal to adolescents and adult fans of historical fiction, and to advanced readers in upper primary years.
I would use this in the upper primary classroom to compare the ancient Cretan culture depicted with those of other texts popular with children in this age group: the Percy Jackson series, The Hunger Games, Scarlet Runner and The Maze Runner. I would also get students to discuss the structure of the book and why the author chose to use prose and verse, and the effectiveness of these two methods of writing for conveying emotion.
Anthea Barrett, Primary Teacher, DECV, VIC
