Synopses & Reviews
"Princess, nobody can stop those rumors. People would rather believe in fairy godmothers...than think that you took charge of your own destiny."Like every commoner in the land, Ella dreams of going to the ball and marrying Prince Charming. But after she is chosen to marry the prince, life with the royal family is not the "happily ever after" that Ella imagined. Pitiless and cold, the royals try to mold her into their vision of a princess. Ella's life becomes a meaningless schedule of protocol, which she fears she will never grasp. And Prince Charming's beautiful face hides a vacant soul.
Even as her life turns to misery, the stories persist that Ella's fairy godmother sent her to the ball: How else could the poor girl wear a beautiful gown, arrive in a coach, and dance in those glass slippers? But there is no fairy godmother to help Ella escape the deadening life of the castle. Can she do it on her own?
Margaret Peterson Haddix's reconstruction of the Cinderella legend without the magic -- how a commoner could have married the prince -- is a story as richly fascinating as the classic tale.
Synopsis
Fifteen-year-old Ella finds Prince Charming's proposal ensnares her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette. So she plots to escape in a retelling of Cinderella's story.
Synopsis
In this continuation of the Cinderella story, 15-year-old Ella finds that accepting Prince Charming's proposal ensnares her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette, so she plots to escape.
About the Author
Margaret Peterson Haddix is the author of
Running Out of Time, Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, Leaving Fishers; and
Among the Hidden. Her work has won a variety of honors, including the International Reading Association Children's Book Award, ALA "Best Books for Young Adults" and "Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers" citations, and state readers' choice lists in fifteen states. A native of Washington Court House, Ohio, she graduated from Miami University and has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a community college instructor. She now lives near Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Doug, and their two children.
Of the genesis of Just Ella, Margaret writes: "When my daughter was three, she fell in love with fairy tales and would sit for hours listening to them. I hadn't read many fairy tales since I was a child myself, and I was surprised by how different they sounded this time around. Soon, every time I read 'Cinderella,' the story I heard inside my head was Ella Brown's."