Ever.Įlla’s spunk and charisma is what made me read and reread Just Ella over and over again in middle school and even high school, and I was beyond delighted to discover, when I went to find a replacement copy in the bookstore after I started working there, that Margaret Peterson Haddix wrote two more books as companions! ( ) And then, when she tries to assert a little independence, when she figures out that this isn’t the life she wants to lead, she has to deal with a prince who has never been told “no,” by anyone. Ella is much more free thinking and more interested in helping people that asking her new servants to do things for her or simply nodding along with everything her etiquette instructor tells her she must do as a new princess. She also must contend with the fact that she and the prince don’t exactly have compatible personalities. Just Ella starts after the ball, after the supposed happily-ever-after, when Ella must adjust to life in the castle and how that differs from the, relative, freedom she experienced while living out in the community around the palace.
But that’s pretty evident from the moment he enters the story. Every other adaptation requires significant changes or “enhancements” (trolls, adventure, kidnapping, curses, etc) to hold my attention and Just Ella falls into the latter category – spoiler alert – Ella doesn’t end up with the Prince.
So far, only Ever After, the movie with Drew Barrymore, is a “true” Cinderella story that I like.
0 kommentar(er)
