Ella Enchanted (Ella Enchanted #1)

Although this book says it is appropriate for ages 8 and up, I strongly disagree. The book immediately dives into a story with an emotionally abusive father and a dead mother. Complete with lines like But worse was the creak as the coffin lid went down and the dry click when it closed. And the thought of Mother packed away in a box. Please consider the impact these kinds of words can have on your child before handing her such a heavy story. I am truly disappointed by this book.

I hated reading as a child. I struggled making sense of every sentence and read only what was required of me in school. In 7th grade I stumbled upon this gem that changed how I would view reading forever. I loved the world Gail Carson Levine created, and the strength of her main character in the face of every challenge she faced has remained with me as an adult. If you have a young resistant reader, pick this up. If he or she still resists, get the audio book–it’s flawless and wonderfully narrated with each character uniquely voiced. If you read and love this book and are looking for a similarly fiery heroine, I highly recommend the Boston Jane historical fiction series by Jennifer Holm.

Ella Enchanted is a cute fairytale. I saw the movie years ago and thought Id give the book a try. They dont seem to follow each other too closely but both are fun for different reasons.

The premise is the same, a good meaning fairy bestowed a terrible gift on a child to be ever obedient. Sure it seems like a good idea except there is no single person that Ella has to be obedient to, anyone can give a command and she has to follow. It wasnt too bad growing up, since she was treated well but after the death of her mother others found they could boss her around too and that is when Elle finds herself in a pickle.

This is a cute tale where Elle must save herself from the gift/curse if she is ever going to have a normal life. All she needs to do is find that dang fairy who bestowed it on her.

Its a play on Cinderella with a twist and short enough that it was an easy read. This is one of the few instances that I enjoyed the movie version a little more. But as light fairytales go it was fun.

It took me time to get accustomed to reading the novel as I don’t have much in common with Ella. She’s had a curse placed against her by a fairy from birth, she likes to learn strange languages, and she lives in a world populated by all kinds of non-human creatures like fairies, elves, centaurs and ogres! Once I got used to that, the book became fun to read. (I normally don’t read fantasy!)

As a fairy tale retelling, the novel doesn’t follow the Cinderella storyline much until the end. Then the resemblance to the well-known fairy tale becomes much more obvious. The earlier chapters deal more with Ella and her sad family problems, her friendships, and her desperate desire to be freed from her curse.

I liked the novel quite a lot. I read a lot of Newbery list books. This one was a Newbery Honor Book in 1998. I think this is a good book for ages 10 and up and that most kids (especially girls) would enjoy reading it.

I received this book as a gift. I must confess I read it in one day. My two main disappointments were that I began reading it expecting a Cinderella type of character and Ella was too rebellious and sometimes irritating. Secondly, I grew excited when I heard that there were some fanciful languages in it and that the author, Gail Carson Levine, said she was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien. The languages were unimaginative and I thought how could someone say she was inspired by Tolkien and create such intolerably stupid and nonsensical languages. They were actually ugly compared to Tolkien’s beautiful Sindarin, Quenya, and Rohirric. Frankly, I think Black Speech and Khazad to be more beautiful. But this is my favourite book by this author. I would recommend this book except at the end Ella’s father is drunk. Not for young children. The chapter with this event in it was not actually put into the book; it is rather like a bonus feature.

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