After a humorous and inventive re-enactment of Cinderella's three appearances at the royal ball, the action concludes with a slightly skewed but happy ending. Young readers will be charmed by the budding romance between Ella and her prince and touched by her crippling fear of hurting the prince via the curse. Levine ably creates tension between the good and evil characters, throwing in an assortment of ogres, elves and gnomes. Although Mandy won't use what she calls ""big magic,"" she does give Ella a magical book that, through glimpses of other people's correspondence, lets her see what is going on in the lives of her new friend, Prince Charmont, her soon-to-be stepsisters and her greedy father. Before her death, Ella's mother commands her daughter to keep the curse a secret-only the cook, Mandy, who is also a fairy, knows the truth. Ella is burdened with a curse (she cannot disobey a command), bestowed at birth as a gift from an addled fairy and this-plus the loss of her beloved mother-causes all sorts of troubles. Levine's artful debut novel features a spunky heroine whose trials, all faced with admirable steadiness, give new twists to the classic Cinderella story.
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