Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  A maid servant is beaten within an inch of her life for oversleeping.  The prince kills a sentenced man in front of Ella, in an attempt to show his power and win her affections.  As Ella approaches the refugee camp, “screams of anguish and terror” come from the battle grounds.

Sexual Content:  Ella describes the power of persuasion through pillow talk “when coupled with a kiss and a breathing whisper and the rest of what men and women do in bed.” Ella says her father was blinded to her step-mother’s faults because of his “desire to touch her skin, caress her body, join his to hers.”  There is mention of different privileges for married women than for virgins.  Ella is threatened to comply to marry the prince or be “taken care of” by a sentenced rapist.

Adult Themes:  Ella’s religious teacher suffers a stroke or heart attack during a lesson and nearly dies.  He “fouls himself”  after passing out.  Religion is talked of as a formality. Brief comments on the sufferings of war.  Citizens living on the country’s borders loose their homes and farms to the destruction of war.   Ella is imprisoned to weaken her will  and force her compliance in marrying Prince Charming.  She is fed occasionally, only a bowl of thin gruel with weevils.

Synopsis

A twist on a popular fairy tale whisks Ella off her feet to live in the Charming castle after winning the prince’s affections (without magic) at a ball.  As she prepares for her upcoming wedding, Princess Cynthiana Eleanora, as she is now called,  is surrounded by tutors and advisers that teach her the proper way to think and behave.  Ella quickly becomes uncomfortable with this restrictive, royal life and longs to have some freedom.   After suffering ill health, Ella’s religious teacher is replaced by his son Jed.  Ella finds Jed refreshingly honest and real and decides to confide some of her feelings to him.  He in return tells Ella that his greatest desire is to create refugee camps for those left homeless from their country’s war.  As her wedding day quickly approaches, Ella realizes that she does not love the prince and decides to break off their engagement.  The prince doesn’t take this well and Ella is thrown into prison until she agrees to the marriage.  Meanwhile, Jed is finally given permission to start his refugee camp when palace advisers suspect a relationship forming between him and the princess.  After days of torment and starvation, Ella escapes the dungeon by digging her way out.  She discovers that Jed is at the battle front and decides her best bet at living a free life is to study up on her agricultural and medical skills,  making herself a valuable asset that the refugee camp cannot refuse.  Days of travel bring her to the country’s border where she finds Jed.  He immediately professes his love to Ella, but she is unsure that this is really what she wants.  After agreeing to work at the camp for a while, Ella eventually discovers that Jed is her one and only true love.

What girl doesn’t dream about living happily ever after.  The author gave this fairy tale a creative spin by using self initiative instead of magic to decide the heroine’s fate.  I did find Ella hard to connect with.  I never felt really drawn into her plight.  I think the author focused too much on the power of feminism rather than developing believable characters.  I also thought that some of the sexual content was too mature for some young readers that might be attracted to a fairy tale story.

2009 The Literate Mother