Ella Enchanted

By Gail Carson Levine
Read: Repeatedly since 1997. Most recently, April 2010
Rating: J’adore

Some books are like old friends. It doesn’t matter where you left off, or how long it’s been, you fall right back into friendship as soon as you meet up. Ella Enchanted is one of my favorite books. I can still remember sighting it for the first time, standing on a counter at the school library. I should really do something to preserve my copy, it’s looking a bit battered.

This may be my favorite quote. It embodies that wonderful feeling I get when I think of Ella:

I wished she’d never stop squeezing me. I wished I could spend the rest of my life as a child, being slightly crushed by someone who loved me.

That sounds rather maudlin, but please keep in mind that Ella was just trying to kiss a mad parrot.

Ahem.

In the land of Frell, fairies exist, but they don’t like to be showy. They prefer to hide, or people start asking them for things. Except for one fairy, Lucinda. She loves the adoration, and she just adores giving gifts. To young Ella, at her birth, she granted the gift of total obedience. Total. Obedience. Poor Ella is subject to ever command, no matter how frivolous or dangerous. “Eat your birthday cake,” means keep eating until the entire thing is gone, even if you feel sick. Not eating will also make her feel sick. Resisting the curse creates headaches, nausea, dizziness, etc. One step in the right direction and they disappear.

Rather than making her docile, Lucinda’s gift has made Ella contrary and clever. For the first fifteen years of her life, Ella is raised by her mother and their cook, two women who love her dearly and try to avoid giving poorly worded orders. Even still, Mandy, the cook, is bossy, and Ella puts a great deal of energy into complying with the letter of the command rather than its intent.

Alas, at the start of the book, Ella’s beloved mother dies. Ella is devastated. She is also vulnerable. Her father is a greedy merchant, who would surely use her if he knew about the curse. He has his own schemes in the works, and sends Ella to boarding school along with two atrociously obnoxious girls. Their mother happens to be very rich. The older girl, Hattie, picks up on Ella’s odd behavior and takes full advantage of it.

Determined to take control of her life, Ella escapes boarding school to look for the fairy Lucinda, hoping she will reverse the curse. On the way, she is captured by ogres–and rescued by Prince Charmont. Ella and Char are slowly becoming friends… perhaps more? When Ella returns home, she finds that her father is marrying Hattie’s mother!

Ella’s resolve is testing again and again. If Lucinda will not break the curse, how can she do it herself? For her mother’s necklace? For the life of a child? …or for love?

The finale is one of my favorite scenes of all time. Ella, rocking in a chair, torn between her desires and what the curse is telling her to do. Back and forth–she wants what she’s been ordered to do, but if she obeys, she will ultimately destroy everyone she loves. And her jubilation in the end is an eruption.

Sadly, the magic of my youth grows thin. I wasn’t as fully immersed this time as I was in the past. I wish Ella were an enchanted book, that got richer and larger every time it’s read. Less than 300 pages, it’s woefully thin for me. But enough to tempt someone who doesn’t like reading, which is excellent. I can’t imagine not being swept up in it. In fact, every time I’ve carried this around in public, girls in my age range and younger will spot it, and say, eyes alight, “That’s such a good book!” It is. It really is.

And, no, we are not going to talk about that travesty of a sham of a movie.