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In my last post, which covered another one of my other childhood favorites, I left a hint that this novel would be about obedience – and a lot of you guessed correctly!

Ella Enchanted is one of my favorite books of all time (and no, I don’t say that very often – I just like choosing these books to write about!). It’s compulsively re-readable and you don’t know just how excited I am to be covering a book that I have been obsessed with since the first time I got my hands on it.

Table of Contents

Reading Between the Lines

Ella Enchanted was written by Gail Carson Levine and published in 1997. It was a Newbery Honor Book (a finalist for the Newbery Medal that Holes won the following year) in 1998 and has set the bar for all fairy tale retellings, not just because of its widespread popularity, but because of the pure magic with which Levine crafts the story.

Eponymous heroine Ella of Frell is born into a world of fairies, ogres, and so much more – but that’s not why she has an unusual start to life. The fairy Lucinda bestows upon Ella a “gift,” which turns out to be the curse of obedience, in which Ella can never disobey a direct command. This fascinating twist on the traditional Cinderella narrative, combined with the cast of diverse but (mostly) lovable characters results in a tale that is both classic and refreshingly original.

Mandy, Ella’s family’s cook, protects Ella as best as she can, especially in light of Ella’s mother’s death and her father’s failure to see her troubles. Ella’s stepsisters Hattie and Olive cause most of Ella’s trouble during her time in finishing school – as a child, I thought that there could never be a character I hated more than Hattie! Prince Char rounds off the main cast, and it is Ella’s love for him that ultimately allows her to break the curse. It really is a heartwarming romance, despite the many twists and turns.