Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine

I had heard of the Ella Enchanted movie (haven't seen it), but didn't really pay much attention to the book until Sarah (Library Hospital) reviewed it. If Sarah enjoyed the book I figured I would too and I was not mistaken in my assumption.

When you think of the Ella Enchanted, the book, think Robin McKinley for young girls. In other words, this is Gail Carson Levine's attempt to write a variation on the theme of Cinderella. It is yet another retelling and it done quite cleverly. I enjoyed it.

In this story, Ella, our fifteen year old protagonist, is given a gift by a fairy when she is born. The fairy makes her always obedient. That would seem like a good spell to cast on any child but as you read this story you come to realize that such a spell is more of a curse than a blessing. Ella is unable not to follow the commands given by other people. Therefore she has to be careful not to tell anyone of her inability to be disobedient and as we are shown, if the wrong people find out about her curse, it can have disastrous results. Naturally, this being a fairy tale, a prince is involved who falls in love with our (very) young maiden and happily ever after is eventually achieved. (Fairy tales are rather predictable that way.)

While I did think this story was cute, clever and funny there were also aspects of it that bugged me. I probably wouldn't hand it over to any daughter of mine without some discussion. It is a little weird to hear a fifteen year old talking about a deep committed relationship with someone and that caught me off guard. There is also the aspect of her present and yet absent father. Her father spent most of her growing up years away from home and when he was home he rather appreciated her being out of sight. There is no love loss between them and so if you want to build good family relationships in your home (and if you have them established!) the hands-off approach to parenting which is displayed in this book would be disturbing to you. Ella's mother, who dies suddenly, is presented as the real parent who truly loved her daughter. Ella's father is the wandering cad. I didn't care for that aspect of the book.

That being said, it is still fun, fluffy fiction and I thoroughly enjoyed it for that. It's really cute but there are a few things about it that give me pause. This story by Levine is perfectly clean and I want to make that clear. It is a good book to make a chick flick out of although as Sarah mentioned, the book and movie have little in common. It's whimsical, it's lovable and creative. In short, it's fun. For my part, Ella Enchanted was a fabulous entertaining read but I'm not overly attached to it.