Book #60: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

I know I've said this before on this blog, but I was a HUUUUUUGE re-reader when I was a kid. I would get on a kick and read a book hundreds of times with a few new books thrown in. Harry Potter was one of those re-readings, and Ella Enchanted was definitely another. I read this book so many times as a kid, but I haven't read it in over ten years, at least. But last night we were skimming Netflix and happened upon the movie, and I may or may not have made Tommy watch it with me--and that made me interested in revisiting the book. Luckily, our library had an e-copy I could download--which was actually the very first time I'd ever bothered to figure out how to download e-books to our Kindle, can you believe it?--and I read it today during Dane's nap. It reminded me of several things: 1) how much worse the movie is than the book (so cheesy! So silly!) and 2) how much I loved this book.

So anyways, I know this is a kid's book (or middle grades--not sure what genre/age group to throw it in here) and I don't usually write about them on here (again, other than Harry Potter) but I have such an affinity for this book that I didn't want to forget about it. I love how this is a re-telling of the Cinderella story with the added twist of Ella's spell of obedience that has been placed on her. I think it's so creative and it perfectly pleases the audience that Levine is writing for. Reading the book as an adult, there are elements that seem somewhat unbelievable (why do she and the prince run into each other so many times? Why does her father not care that she's being forced to work as a servant?) but it's still a great book that I fully intend to read with my kids (especially any girls if I ever have any).