Usually, when we hear the words “and they lived happily ever after,” we think that’s the end of the story. The adventure has ended, and there is no more. Cinderella lived happily ever after with her prince, didn’t she? Well, didn’t she? In “Just Ella,” author Margaret Peterson Haddix explores the “what if.”
Ella has gone to live in the castle preparatory to marrying the prince. Gone are the days when she would sit in the ashes or scrub the entire house for her evil stepmother – she is now the one in charge, and she’s not sure she likes it. She’s waited on hand and foot, she’s not allowed to do anything for herself, and she’s completely bored. She likes to do things for herself – in fact, despite the rumors, there really was no fairy godmother. Ella pulled that whole thing off herself, with determination and brains.
Prince Charming is certainly charming, but he’s just not very smart. Jed, her tutor, is smart, and interesting, and makes Ella feel like there’s more to life than embroidery, which is about all she’s allowed to do anymore. Ella begins to wonder if she did the right thing in coming to the ball. Has she put herself in a situation she’d rather not be in?
Finally making her choice, Ella tells the Prince that she can’t marry him, only to find that you can’t just break a royal engagement like that. She ends up in the dungeon.
I’m not going to give away the ending to this story, except for to say that it’s an interesting twist on the old story. Some critics have called it a more “feminist” retelling, but I don’t think it’s necessarily feminist to show a woman having a brain. Women can have brains without making it into a political cause, can’t they?
While I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as I did “Ella Enchanted,” I did find it very enjoyable and think your young adult daughter will too.
(This book was published in 2001.)
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