The Dragonfly Pool is a children's novel by author Eva Ibbotson. It is illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. In a foreword to the book, Ibbotson writes that the school featured in the novel is based on her own experience at Dartington Hall, a progressive school in Devon. The inspirational biology teacher, Matteo, is based on David Lack, the ornithologist, who did a lot of his early research on robins with the help of his pupils Source: Wikipedia (en)