Ella Enchanted - Part 1

The character Ella in the book Ella Enchanted is somewhat similar yet very different from the classic Cinderella character. Some of the ways they are similar are their names (in part), the fact that there are two girls harassing her, and the loss of her birth mother. Although there are these similarities, Levine has made Ella significantly different in many ways. For example, the biggest difference is that Ella has a curse put on her by a fairy rather than a blessing as in the original tales. Another difference is that Olive and Hattie are simply girls she is going to school with rather than her stepsisters (but there is foreshadowing they might eventually become related). Some other differences are she was sent off to finishing school, there are all sorts of fairy tale creatures instead of just fairy godmothers and magical animals, and she and the prince interact with each other much more. I think the changes Levine made were great. She kept the basic idea of Cinderella but gave it her own twist. This story has kept me interested because it is not as predictable as the original tales were.