Ella Enchanted

Levine turns Cinderella into the story of a girl fighting for control of her own life. Ella is stubborn, bright and funny, and she has learned to resist the curse in small ways, but anyone who discovers her secret can make her do anything. Her mother's death leaves her with only the loving family cook, Mandy, who has secrets of her own. Her father, Sir Peter, a merchant more interested in money than in his daughter, sends her to a finishing school with Hattie and Olive, the spoiled daughters of a wealthy widow, and Hattie soon learns to give Ella orders.

Ella runs away, crossing a land full of elves, gnomes, giants and dangerous ogres, whose languages she learns quickly and uses cleverly to escape. Along the way, her friendship with Prince Char, which began with jokes and letters, grows into love. When her father marries the widow, Ella becomes a servant in her own home, and the familiar fairy-tale ending plays out with new twists, including three balls and a final crisis in which Ella realizes that her curse could make her a danger to the prince and his kingdom, and must find the strength to break it from within.

Light, lively and satisfying. About 240 pages in paperback.