Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

• Title: Ella Enchanted
• Author: Gail Carson Levine
• Publishing: HarperCollins, Reprint Edition. April 19th, 2011.
• Synopsis: The story of Ella Enchanted begins when at birth, the main character Ella is given the gift of obedience by her fairy godmother Lucinda. Lucinda means well but doesn't realize how terrible this gift could be for Ella. Ella's mother realizes this and tells Ella to never tell anyone about the spell. Tragically, Ella's mother dies and at her funeral Ella meets Dame Olga and her horrid daughters Hattie and Olive. Ella is sent to finishing school with Hattie and Olive and Hattie finds out about the spell cast on Olive. Ella's father runs out of money and is forced to marry Dame Olga for survival and Hattie and Olive become Ella's step sisters. Dame Olga is furious when she finds out that Ella's father has no money and forces Ella to be her servant. Ella is asked to marry Prince Charming who she loves but she says no for fear of being used as a weapon against him. Prince Charming hold a ball looking for a wife which Ella and her stepsisters attend. Ella's stepsisters rip off her mask and Ella runs losing a glass slipper on the way. Prince Charming comes to Ella's house, puts the slipper on Ella's foot and demands she marry him. Ella disobeys, breaking the spell and making her free to explain everything, marry Prince Charming, and live happily ever after. 
• The author writes the story from the perspective of a narrator, in a creative and clever style that demands the reader to be constantly engaged for fear of missing something. This clever way of keeping the reader on their toes makes the writing style of author Gail Carson Levine unique.
• I love this book because it takes the theme of the power of love and weaves it into a modern twist of Cinderella. I love the clever writing style of the author and I feel that this book is also great because it is relatable to young girls. Not of course due to the spells and prince charming, but of sometimes feeling like you must always do as your told as children often get that from their parents. I think this is an excellent book that is perfect for anyone who loves books about magic, make believe and prince charming. 
• In thinking of fun ways to incorporate Ella Enchanted into the classroom, I stumbled upon a list of three awesome activities that could go along with reading the book. The first activity was  one that had to do with writing in which the student takes a common fairytale and adds their own twist to it making it their own. I could have students submit them to me for editing and multiple drafts before creating their own fairytale book which I could laminate and put on display either in my classroom or in the hallway. Another fun activity that I found was having the students pretend to be Ella Enchanted for an hour, therefore having to do anything someone says for you to do. I love this idea in general, however I would do it different by cutting the time down to ten minutes in which all of the students would participate as Ella and only I would give demands so that i could control what demands students have to do, avoiding a lot of problems. This way the students can put themselves in the main character Ella's shoes and have to experience what she went through in the book. A full description of these activities and one more can be found in the link here: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/ella-enchanted-extension-activities
• In looking at these activities, I also found a lesson plan on comparing and contrasting Ella Enchanted with its more traditional version Cinderella. That lesson plan can be found in this link here: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/ella-enchanted-lesson-plan
• I found a book trailer for Ella Enchanted that can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_8Ad-QnlhE
• For more information on the author, click on this link to her website here: https://gailcarsonlevine.com