Ella Enchanted

by Gail Carson Levine

Everyone called it losing Mother, but she wasn’t lost. She was gone, and no matter where I went—another town, another country, Fairyland, or Gnome Caverns—I wouldn’t find her.

this Hurt.

Eleanor. No one had ever called me that before, even though it was my real name. Eleanor had always been Mother, and always would be.

Once I had overheard Bertha tell Mandy that he was only a person on the outside and that his insides were ashes mixed with coins and a brain.

Ogres weren’t dangerous only because of their size and their cruelty. They knew your secrets just by looking at you, and they used their knowledge.

“Danger, a quest, three figures. They are close to you, but they are not your friends.” She let my hand go. “Beware of them!”

Tables were forever safe from me.

She was kinder than anyone I’d ever known.

I had never enjoyed being a small elephant and hadn’t mourned the loss till now.

If I thought of a joke, I wanted to try it on him. If I had a serious idea, I wanted his opinion.

lost in smiling at you.

I like to be surprised, but if I could supply your answers with confidence, I might miss you less.

Are you still too young to marry?

“If my years are measured by inches, then I am certainly too young.

With each of his letters I fell more in love with him.

I trust you to find the good in me, but the bad I must be sure you don’t overlook.

But I think I’ve loved you since we met at your mother’s funeral.

I could even be forced to kill Char!

Marry him. I won’t. Marry him. I won’t.

“You rescued yourself when you rescued the prince.

had been able to break the curse myself. I’d had to have reason enough, love enough to do it, to find the will and the strength.

Char was enough.