Ella of Frell is born with the 'gift' of obedience, given to her by a fairy named Lucinda, but she is not ready to accept her gift.
The protagonist is a kind, strong-willed, clumsy girl who's always willing to do things right. She has a knack for learning different languages and loves fairy tales. Her mother dies and soon her father (an absent-minded and cruel merchant who only cares about being rich) remarries, sending her to school with her two step-sisters.
Ella loathes finishing school and decides to run away leaving her new best friend behind. She sets off on a quest to find Lucinda in the hope she will lift the curse. On her journey the heroine encounters ogres, attends a giant's wedding, befriends elves and falls in love with a prince (of course).
She eventually finds the fairy, but will she lift the curse and allow our protagonist to follow her dreams or leave her with another order that will change her life forever?
The story is similar to Cinderella: both are tales with a fairy godmother, a glass slipper, and a coach. However, Ella Enchanted is more exciting with its ogres, giants, elves and a princess who has a curse put on her and is sent to finishing school.
Even though this is a fairy tale Levine doesn't write so. She doesn't start with the regular 'Once upon a time' but with 'That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me. She meant to bestow a gift.' The idea of a fairy's gift being a curse made me curious and meant that I had to read the book.
I loved the characters, especially brave Ella who won't be pushed around by anybody, and thought this was a great story because it has a mix of adventure, danger, humour and romance.
I would recommend this book to girls (and some boys) age 9-12 because it has magic that children of those ages would love and appreciate. Overall, a brilliant book!
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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