Ella Enchanted is one of my fave books, and is probably THE best book I`ve read my whole life (and believe me, I`ve read a lot of books.) Like I said, I`ve read this book countless times and I always like it better each time I finish it. And that`s a HIGH compliment to Gail Carson Levine,`cuz I don`t usually read books over and over again and still like it. I swear, it`s an excellent book that is sure to become a famous children`s story like Charles Dickens` Oliver Twist. Makes me wonder why it only won a Newbery Honor instead of the Newbery medal itself. Your probably wondering why I think this is such a great book when I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. Well, I gotta say that, like Char, Levine puts in a little too much. There are a few plot devices that don`t contribute anything to the story, like the parrot, Chock (who disappears after his introduction for the rest of the story) the Agulen wolf, the necklace that belonged to Ella`s mother, Apple the centaur, even the glass slipper. None of those things helped the plot roll along, they were merely there to sit around and look pretty. I suppose I can`t blame Levine for the glass slipper, since that was part of the original fairy tale, but the readers could`ve done very well without Chock the parrot. If he was just there for Ella to try and kiss him, Levine could`ve easily written that part in while Ella is visiting the menagerie. And because of his disappearance for the last half of the story, we forgot about him completely. We`d also have forgotten about the other plot devices I mentioned if Levine hadn`t kept reminding us about them throuhout the story. Still, this is a terrific book filled with mythical creatures, action, family, individuality, and, of course, romance.:)