Ella Enchanted

Levine, G. C. (1997). Ella enchanted. New York: Scholastic.

In this modern version of the Cinderella tale, young Ella was given a “gift” by  fairy named Lucinda of obedience. Even though they pleaded, Ella’s mother and cook, Mandy, could not convince Lucinda to undo the curse. So, Ella lived her life, unable to deny the following of a direct command. A wish or a request could be ignored, but any order, Ella had to obey. She could try to fight it or delay, but it was inevitable. Ella’s mother, at a young age after an incident with a young girl in town, ordered her to never tell anyone about her curse. When Ella was fifteen, her mother got ill and died. At her mother’s funeral, she has he first encounter with Prince Charmont, which later she affectionately refers to as Char. He talks with Ella about how enjoyed her mother and how she always made him laugh. Ella seems to take the same sentiments with the Prince: he is continuously laughing at her clumsiness or humor. After the funeral, the reader is introduced to Dame Olga and her two daughters: Olive and Hattie. They are rude and ornery  girls who only care about their riches. After the Olga family leaves, Ella finds herself with Mandy, who reveals she is in fact Ella’s fairy godmother. She pleads with her to do magic but she refuses, stating that big magic is only for fairies like Lucinda. After the passing of his wife, Sir Peter, Ella’s father, decides to send Ella to finishing school. Here, once again, the Olga sisters come into play, as Ella accompanies them to finishing school. Mandy sadly says farewell, giving Ella her mother’s pearl necklace and an enchanted storybook. On the way there, Hattie figures out that if you order Ella to do something she must do it. She doesn’t understand that it is a curse but it is still dangerous to Ella. Once at finishing school, Ella struggles with needlepoint, singing, handwriting, and basically everything that they practice. She has gained an enemy in Hattie who uses her knowledge of Ella to benefit herself. But she also gains a friend in a young girl named Areida. Ella also figures out that her story book from Mandy is enchanted, letting her see her Father’s communications, as well as Char’s in the book. With some time, Ella begins to do better at finishing school but Hattie will simply not let her have any peace. While Hattie orders her no longer be friends with Areida, she decides to run away from finishing school and meet up with her father at a giant’s wedding where Lucinda will hopefully appear. In her travels, she gets surrounded by some ogres but learns to overtake them by using their language against them. In this fiasco, Prince Charmont and some of his men meet up with Ella. Char and Ella are happy to be reunited and many of the men notice how happy Char appears around Ella. Ella leaves Char and continues on to the wedding, where she confronts Lucinda, as an unknown, and asks her to undo the curse. Lucinda refuses and instead tells her to embrace the curse and love it. Ella returns home with her father, who now reveals he is broke. His only chance of redemption lies in marrying someone rich. Much to Ella’s dismay, he remarries Dame Olga and Hattie and Olive become  her step-sisters.  Char returns to her at the wedding, stating that he is off to travel to a different land for a year, as a custom . He and Ella agree to exchange letters. Dame Olga and her two step-sisters begin to treat Ella as a servant, as Ella’s father is out-of-town working. Ella never reveals this to Char and they send letters continuously back and forth. Finally, Char reveals his love for Ella and asks her to marry him. Ella is ecstatic at first, but soon realizes her curse would be a threat to Char and the kingdom. She replies to him, as Hattie, saying “Ella” has married someone new and that she has deceived him. Char is heartbroken and returns home after his year is up to throw a series of three balls. Ella wishes to go the balls and with the help of Lucinda, who has had a change of heart thanks to Mandy, helps her to go. The masquerade ball allows Ella to remain as an unknown, but can she ever win back the love of Char? What will happen to Ella? Is the curse ever broken?

Read Ella Enchanted to find out what becomes of Ella and Prince Char! 

This modern twist on an old classic fairytale would truly be an excellent fantasy reader to use with 5^th-8^th grade students. This is definitely a fantasy story having elements that are beyond the realm of possibility. There are fairies, ogres, giants, and even the classic pumpkin-being-turned-into-a-carriage escapade. Even Ella’s curse of being obedient is the magic that is thread throughout the course of the entire story. On page 202, the classic Cinderella details come to life. Lucinda turns a pumpkin into a carriage, mice into horses,  a rat into a coachman, and six lizards into footmen. In her travels to the giant’s wedding, Ella meets up with elves and ogres! All of these details and many more are outside the realm of reality, all contributing to this delightful fantasy tale.

One of the big issues in this novel is the issue of conflict. There are many forms of it that run through the story. There is a person vs. self conflict that Ella deals with the entire story. She tries very hard at times, to the point of being dizzy, breathless and almost passing out, to defy the curse but in the end she always loses. She is very resentful to Lucinda for bestowing this curse on her. Once Lucinda orders her to love and accept the curse, her frame of mind changes briefly, but she is still following an order.  At the very end of the story, around page 224, the final battle begins and Char asks Ella to marry him. She wants deeply to say yes but Hattie buts in and orders her to refuse. You read this battle going on inside of Ella’s mind where she is screaming inside to say “YES!” but the curse is not allowing her to do so.  There is also several person vs. person conflicts throughout the story as well. Ella is trapped in this battle with her eventual step-sister Hattie who figures out the curse and uses it to abuse Ella. There is a conflict between Ella and Lucinda, which Ella battles to prove to her that the curse is no good and she must undo it. Ella also have conflict with her father, who seems uninterested in Ella’s true well being, using her as simply a pawn to help clean of the mess he made with his life. 

The protagonist of the story is clearly Ella. She is fully described throughout the story and I think Levine gives the reader a great insight into her character by allowing the reader to read her thoughts and well as her actions. The battle with herself, in her mind with the curse, is clearly evident. She is a funny, quirky girl who cares deeply for those closest to her. Her relationship with Char and Mandy, those she cares about, as well as those with whom she despises, Olga and Hattie, are shown in great detail. 

Young girls would love to read this story and I think they would become entranced with Ella and the struggles she goes through. I had a really hard time putting this book down because you never know what will come next and what is going to happen. Every young girl struggles with some “weakness” in her life and Ella really overcomes this! There is this sense of good vs. evil and that is always intriguing to readers.

I think the Twitter Tweet activity would be great for this book. Levine gives the author so many insights on to what Ella is thinking that young students could easily replicate this is a humorous way. My tweet for Ella and the ogres would be: “Cook myself? Is that an order? #obdienceproblems.”

Some BIG questions while reading would be:  Why do you think Lucinda feels like these are “gifts” and not curses? Compare and contrast the original Cinderella with Ella Enchanted? What is the same? Different? How is Ella always in constant danger with the curse? What kind of man is Ella’s father? If you were Ella, would you rather be happy to live with curse or struggle with it? What do you think was the worst gift given by Lucinda?