Ella Enchanted

Ella Enchanted

Author: Gail Carson Levine

Genre: Traditional

Publishing Info: Harper Collins Publishers

Number of Pages: 232

Summary: Ella is a young girl who was cursed with the gift of obedience. She is to follow any orders, good and bad, because she must obey every persons orders. If being cursed for the rest of her life isn't bad enough, she is then left to live with her greedy father and her new evil stepmother and stepsisters. Ella is sent to finishing school to learn the ways of her stepsisters but finds herself wondering of the wear abouts of the fairy who bestowed this horrible "gift" to her. On her journey she meets fantistical characters and reunites with Prince Char, her longing love. She is faced with difficult decisions throughout her journey and finds herself making one of the most life changing desicions of her life! Ella Enchanted is like the fairy tale Cinderella but with more fantistical characters. A child who appreciates traditional and fantasy will enjoy this book!

Personal Rating: ****

Rationale: Reasonable high fantasy added into the fairy tale; great detail writting, great cliam in the story;

Reading Level: 4.6

Interest Level: 3rd-5th

Thematic Areas: Good vs. Evil, Responsibilty and leadership, confronting and resolving fears, making choices, death

Content Areas: History

Possible problems or difficulties: Inablity to understand the fantistical characters in the story

Possible uses in the classroom: Have the students write their own version of this fairy tale. Have them read it to the class adn have them tell the plot, climax villian, and main characters. Another idea for this story is to have them put themselves in Ella's shoes for the rest of the day.Allow them to journal their experiences and which experiences were bad and which were good. The students can also do a story chain, where one student will start to rewrite the story and then another child will add to the same story. All the students in the class will add on to the same story. This activity can be put in a writing center for a few days. Assign different jobs to the students after the story is fininshed, such as publisher, and illustrators.