Dragonfly: The Next Guardian

Dragonfly: The Next Guardian is a work of fiction credited to Abanoub Marcus about dinosaurs. It's about a young Troodon named Dragonfly who saves the dinosaur community from an evil Daspletosaurus named Sharptooth. Along the way, he befriends a young female Einiosaurus named Styra (even though Troodons are carnivores and einiosaurs are herbivores) and eventually defeats Blackclaw.


 * Carnivore Confusion: The author makes it very clear that carnivorism is okay, as long as it's just for food. Dragonfly and his family hunt and kill other dinosaurs for food. Sharptooth is evil because he kills for joy, not for food. To add a whole new level of confusion, the dinosaurs are segregated, with carnivores not being able to interact with herbivores. However, Dragonfly eventually ends up befriending Styra, because Troodons are too small to kill einiosaurs.
 * I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You: When Sharptooth kidnaps Styra, he asks her where Dragonfly is. She says "No! I'll never tell you that Dragonfly is at his nest, close to the river, about 5 miles from here". This was obviously Played for Laughs.
 * Infant Immortality: Averted. At the beginning, all of Dragonfly's siblings are eaten by a Chirostenotes while they are still inside their egg. Blackclaw also kills a baby Saurornitholestes in the story.
 * Long-Lost Relative: The entire basic plot of the second book is about Dragonfly finding his long-lost sister.
 * Somewhere A Paleontologist Is Crying: Completely averted. (Not surprisingly, since it was actually written by a paleontologist). Unlike other fictional books about dinosaurs, all of the dinosaurs in The Tale of Dragonfly lived at the same time and in the same region. The setting is the Late Cretaceous period in western North America. Besides the fact that the dinosaurs can talk, everything is pretty much scientifically accurate. In fact, The Tale of Dragonfly may be the most accurate fictional work about dinosaurs ever made.
 * Stock Dinosaurs: Again, also completely averted. Not one stock dinosaur appears in the book. Non-stock relatives that are very similar to their stock cousins are used instead. For example, Dromaeosaurus and Saurornitholestes are used instead of Velociraptor, Daspletosaurus is used instead of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Einiosaurus is used instead of Triceratops, and Alamosaurus is used instead of "Brontosaurus" (really Apatosaurus). The main character is a Troodon, which is a non-stock dinosaur.
 * Super Persistent Predator: Sharptooth. He keeps chasing Dragonfly and Styra for the whole book. He wants to kill Dragonfly for revenge because he accidentally injured his eye.
 * Wouldn't Hurt A Child: Averted. Sharptooth kills a baby Saurornitholestes, and he doesn't feel bad about it at all. In fact, he is very proud of himself. Also, the flashback in the second book, where Dragonfly's siblings are all killed by an egg-eating Chirostenotes.