She had my full attention when I opened the book, and she lost it by the second sentence. Listen to this:
"The fire had gone out and I didn't know what to do"
oooh! Interesting! Is she in danger? I had read a book that had started out like this;
You were drawn in with worry as you read about a girl locked in a store room, watching as her lamp begins to sputter, knowing that without light she'll lose her sanity. Eagerly I read on with Just Ella.
"...I was covered with a king's ransom of silk-sewn comforters and surrounded by six warming pans, so I was mostly warm. But my nose was exposed and freezing."
The poor thing, I hate a cold nose.
Ever hear the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover"? Well, I bet you've never heard "don't judge a book by the first half of it" . Why not? Because if the first half is junk, then you really should find yourself another book; THAT'S why. However, sometimes, a book can surprise you. This is what happened with a book called "Just Ella". (NOT to be confused with "Ella Enchanted" - one of my favorite books of all time.)
In Just Ella, I was fuming mad at the author, Margaret Peterson Haddix, after struggling through the first chapter. 'How did this get published?' I thought angrily. And why did we buy it?!?! Out of the millions of writers desperately trying to get published, there had to be THIS book crowding up the shelf? (For those who know me as quiet and soft, I get pretty passionate about writing and storytelling) Before I threw the whole thing away however, I decided to skim through it just to make sure it wasn't as bad as I thought. Yup... yup... yup... it was actually worse than I thought. When suddenly, I landed on something interesting. I had finally found the gold! ... But more on that in a minute.
Let me explain my original anger.
I like explaining. :) And criticizing this book really helped me learn a few things about writing.
The book is about Cinderella, or "Ella" after she gets married to the prince. Overall, I think you could get a really good and wonderful message from it. Unfortunately, the author, Haddix, went about writing it all wrong, and you didn't find out the message of the book until the VERY end. That's like chewing on a really bitter piece of gum for an hour before finally getting an amazing bubble gum flavor. It just doesn't help entertain or enrich you.
The author was trying to make the famous Cinderella story make sense. That was the bitter part. The wonderful flavor was she was trying to say that riches, castles, and perfect princes aren't what can make a person happy. That beauty and happiness is in the eye of the beholder. Instead, as you go through the story, it feels more like Ella's happily ever after is out to get her! You're left a bit paranoid and traumatized. I mean honestly, everything from castle people (maids and rich alike) being as rude and unfriendly as they possibly can be, to the Prince actually tying her up somewhere in the story! She was trying to make it more "realistic" ... by taking everything I love out of Cinderella!
What makes us love Cinderella? I'll tell you. A girl, a beautiful girl who loves her father has to endure not only his death, but mistreatment for ages afterward by her step mother and sisters. They try to make her miserable- but she endures the rags and chores all the while dreaming of a better place. She is strong- inside and out. She works hard and is obedient. In one version of Cinderella, she actually forgives her step-mother and sisters, inviting them to live in the castle. Now, that takes guts. The reason it glows and stands out to me is because it teaches true principles. Endurance, forgiveness, kindness, along with hard work. Cinderella was someone I looked up to when I was little. We are all going to be treated unfairly in life; how do we deal with that? Through righteousness. Through love. Love is the basis of all of the commandments! For me, it can mean the difference between good and evil.
Gail Carson Levine (author of Ella Enchanted) taught that as a writer you need likeable characters that your reader can care about. You don't need a perfect character... they can do all sorts of crazy things. "But they can't be evil" Levine wrote, "they need to mean well underneath it all."
I think that's what gets me about this book. I'm not going to go so far to say Ella in this book was evil. But as she went through each dramatic turn of events, I felt a little sick inside.
It might just be my own personal reaction, but let me give you an idea of what our character is like.
Our new Cinderella suspiciously can remind us of a modern teen. She refers to her family as the 'step evils' and in anger at one point in the book says "I hope you and Corimunde and Griselda die in your own filth,"
Alright, well, justice served I guess. An eye for an eye. Tooth for a tooth. They treated her badly, she hated them. I got the impression that if she left home, and a year later she heard that they did die in their own filth, she would have been fine with that.
I can't say that's a quality I can admire in a person. Or how about this; after a rich castle person is getting mad (extremely and dramatically)at her for fixing her own fire, explaining that servants like to serve, Ella thought this: " I clenched my teeth- an ugly habit, I'd been told again and again. But if I opened my mouth, I knew the angry words would spill out. What did Madame Bisset know about how servants felt and thought? Why did she think anyone would get any pleasure out of serving lazy, selfish, self-centered people like her? I knew. I'd been there. Not quite a servant, but close enough. I'd had no respect for the ones I waited on, to begin with. If they'd so much as raised a finger to help me, the question was, would I have been able to stop hating them?"
Please, if you are a writer, don't make the mistake of being the audience! We are the ones who are supposed to be mad and angry, we are the ones who should feel sorry for Ella, not her. When I go and read on in a story, its because I want to see if all the characters I care about get what they deserve. When Ella was full of hatred... I felt it all cancelled each other out. They hated her, she hated them. The end. An eye for an eye and everyone is blind. Sure, she didn't go out and do the same harm they did. But in her heart, underneath it all, she held the same hatred.And the book made that seem more ideal, more powerful, more right. Let's not kid ourselves here. She doesn't act as though she had a scarred childhood and is trying to figure life out. She acts like a headstrong teenager, just plain fed up.
And arguably, I have been told that Ella's anger is more realistic. But is this how the human soul operates? Can it run on bitterness and still be good? Can I believe that Cinderella lived her whole life hating her family and wasn't starving for the love and true parenting every human needs? After a life that long of oppression, I can see a scared, frightened, unsure Cinderella... struggling with being unloved, struggling with self worth. I can see her trying harder and harder to get that love... How can you grow up head strong and hating? Unless there really is something bad stirring underneath? Ella wasn't evil though. So I argue that her response doesn't ring true, and it teaches wrong principles; the two things that tick me off most.
I'm sorry if you like the author, I heard she is good. Maybe because she puts her heart in her writing and imagines her own responses, which usually end up feeling authentic. It doesn't work here.
When I had very bad rheumatoid arthritis, and the doctor asked me to rate my pain I said 6 out of 10. I could stand, I could sit, and the other day I was in bed crying, so today was actually great by comparison. I had to learn to be grateful for what I had. I just couldn't focus my attention on that much pain. In actuality my knees didn't straighten, I couldn't pull my head up, my hands ached, I was a level 9. Then months later, when I was almost all cured I said I was between a 4 and a 5. Because my neck really, really bugged me. Actually, I was maybe a 2. My experienced doctor said that the worse it is the less people complain, where as with less pain you'll find them complaining more. Do you see the difference now? Between scarred, and bugged to the point of anger? That's why I described her as a modern teen. Because a modern teen is typically pampered and pretty well cared for; and they can truly get bugged and go into a stubborn rage. I've done it several times over small and worthless things. But a steady pulse of pain and rejection from your family... you have to find a different way of living when you have that.
By this time you must be fed up with this ridiculously long post about the ridiculous things of this strange anti-Cinderella. I decided to go through with all this however, so you can experience my same joy when I discovered Jed.
Jed is where the author finally went right. If you want to make your characters more human, (but still likeable!) this was the way to go. In fact, in my own copy of the book, I referenced all the pages that involved him. I love to read these because even Ella finally comes through (finally) as a good character. Jed is deliciously described as being... "tall, and much too thin for his frame and his clothes. The clothes also seemed too formal for his comfort somehow, although by castle standards they were practically slovenly: dark velvet breeches with worn knees, a wrinkly white shirt, a brown coat and waist coat of obviously good wool, but poorly sewn. His dark curly hair could most charitably be called mussed; it reminded me of the way our village had looked after a windstorm toppled three houses and knocked down six trees."
What image are we getting? Imperfection at its best! Maybe even our first reaction is "gross... where is the hero who is nice and good looking?"
But you forget so quickly about his looks. He is friendly and kind. He is funny and talkative. He has a great amount of self control and integrity, and he has dreams of helping the refuges of the war which he will bravely accomplish. I loved this character! In fact, rewrite the whole thing and call the book 'Just Jed' and you could have something there, Haddix.
He is also in love with Ella. He is her new tutor, and they become what friends should be. They tell each other childhood memories, future dreams, they discuss philosophy, and they talk for hours.
But, even though we want him to stay so badly, we also know he needed to do the right thing and leave the castle. He had his integrity after all, and Ella was engaged to someone else. After escaping prison for trying to break the engagement however, (yes she was thrown in prison. After the prince tied her up.) she decides to go and find him. It takes a lot of walking and hard work, but she finds him.
"Ella," he breathed in a voice that made my heart beat fast and my head feel light
(isn't this good?) I didn't know that Jed could have that affect on me.
And it gets better! He asks her what happened, and after hearing it, he slides down and... you guessed it! Proposes. He tells her that he had fallen in love with her since the moment he saw her. She isn't impressed with that- reminding him of where that had ended her up with the prince! Not to mention she wasn't anything to look at right then (which was totally true. I mean, after a week or two of travel in the same dress? Not even Cinderella could pull that off) But Jed said what I think every girl in the world would love to hear.
"You still look beautiful to me," he said softly. "But its not your looks I'm in love with. Or," he corrected himself, "not just them. It's your personality, and your sense of humor, your courage, your perseverance, your intelligence...Basically everything about you."
eep, isn't that just wonderful? That is the part in the story where a girl will insert herself, and finally become part of the story. I did anyway. And you will be surprised when you read this, but actually at that point I closed the book and threw it against the wall.
That author was trying to create something real and applicable to my life; but it was the most unrealistic thing of all. I could believe that there would be a prince who was perfect in every way falling heads over heals for a beautiful girl. No problem. Crushes happen to everyone, especially perfect people (and those type of people exist) but someone being a true friend before boyfriend? Someone falling in love with all of your kindness, goodness, virtues, and faults? Someone talking with you for hours about dreams, childhood, philosophy and the spirit ? And all at the same time reaching your same standards of integrity and spirituality?
You're asking for a miracle. Still, who doesn't want to read about miracles? So I picked the book back up... wow! She had said no. She wanted more time to see- and although crest fallen, he agreed. He loved her, truly loved her, and was willing to wait as a friend for an answer that could be no.
People talk about a prince falling in love with a girl at first sight. No, no...no.. THIS was true love. No one can replace a friend. Crushes fall- you get over them. But I felt like throwing my book against the wall again.
It just wasn't fair- Ella didn't deserve Jed, why couldn't he just pop out of the book and talk to me for awhile? Okay... maybe its not fair to say she didn't deserve him.... Wait; what am I saying? I scored points for just thinking that. Why was I stuck with real life?
No, no, my life really is good... and it is filled with wonderful people. I just wish I could meet... no, no, not as a romance, I just want to meet someone who can give me hope that really good young men exist! Any young man who can see past just one moment of time.Someone who cares deeply and feels deeply; about the right things. Someone who will respect me because I love God, and because I strive to live up to that love. Someone passionate about Christianity and willing to shine forth and fight for what he believes.
Maybe he does exist and I just don't think he does.
Haha... maybe he doesn't think I exist either.
P.S I wouldn't know
what to rate it... but if you are obsessed with teaching good values and
characters that make sense (like I am) I don't suggest it!
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