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There’s so much more to a book than just the reading.
–Maurice Sendak

Every time I read this book, it’s like visiting a favorite place. Ella Enchanted (by Gail Carson Levine) was the book that first introduced me to retold fairy tales. When I read it the first time I didn’t recognize it as a Cinderella story until halfway through. When I did, what a great surprise!

I’ve reread this book almost every year, but I accidentally skipped the last year for some reason. I want to get back in the habit of rereading it yearly, like a mini-vacation for my brain. So, I added it to my first-ever summer bucket list!

I don’t really feel like doing a long book review, but if you want to know if you should read it, of course I’d recommend it. The writing is simple, so it’s a fast, entertaining read.

Elements of the story you may want to know when deciding if you should to add it to your reading list:

• humor, drama
• fairies, elves, gnomes, centaurs, other magical characters and themes
• strong female lead, she’s smart and independent, but also has friends
• strong male characters (no “dumb jock” or “useless men” stereotypes)
• actually, just strong character development overall
• the premise is that Ella has to obey everything she’s told to do
• the plot is a twist on the Cinderella fairy tale
• and from what I can tell of the movie plot (based on movie trailers and plot summary), the book’s plot is different from the movie’s

Based on how much I enjoy this book, I never saw the movie, because the trailers made it seem like a very different story, told in a silly way; but the book, while funny, is not roll-your-eyes silly. However, I’m willing to reconsider if any of you have seen the movie and read the book and think they’re similar.

Do you have a favorite book? What is it and why do you like it?
If it’s been made into a movie, have you seen the movie adaptation? What did you think?