ISBN: 978-0060558864
A wayward fairy causes much mischief in Gail Carson Levine’s ‘Ella Enchanted.’ Ella is the young child of loving parents but her fairy godmother has different ideas than most as to what makes a good child. For instance parents may wish their child would be more obedient but would you ever wish that your child be required to do absolutely everything that absolutely everyone tells them to do? That’s the gift that Lucinda determines is best for baby Ella much to her parents displeasure but she also refuses to take it back and Ella is forced to live her life as a perfectly obedient child.
When Ella’s mother dies she makes her daughter promise never to reveal her curse to anyone and Ella never does. Only her nursemaid and her father truly know of the curse but her stepsisters learn about it quite quickly and use it to force her into situations she doesn’t want to be in at all. In a world of magic, being completely obedient is definitely not something that anyone would wish for and Ella decides to search out her fairy godmother and request that she take the wish back.
What will Become of Ella?
Well a great many things will happen to Ella on her journey to locate her fairy godmother. In fact she will:
- Be captured by giants
- Be invited to the giants wedding
- Meet a lawyer leprechaun
- Be sung to by an entire city of leprechaun’s
- See the true treachery of the current laws
- Uncover a plot against the prince
- And fall in love
And all of these things happen in quite a short time and a quite dangerous manner for a young girl who is forcibly obedient to all she meets whether they are friend or foe.
It’s going to take a lot of work and one way or another breaking the curse for Ella to keep herself from doing something she definitely doesn’t want to do. Somehow she’ll have to summon all the strength she has to keep herself safe and to protect those she cares about, but will it happen soon enough? It will be difficult especially if her fairy godmother decides not to help her. But what’s a young girl in love to do? Because Ella is most definitely in love and she’s determined to protect the man that she loves from the dangers of her curse at all costs.
