Gail Carson Levine: Her Writings Are Sometimes Good and Other Times They Are Not

A while ago I read Ella Enchanted, a novel by Gail Carson Levine. You may know it better as the Disney movie that is based on it. After I saw the film, I found out that the movie was actually based upon a book. I read the book, and I like it much, much better that the movie.

Well, after I read Ella Enchanted I also read the The Princess Tales series by the same author. I also liked these books, so I generally assumed that all the other books that Gail Carson Levine has written were good and acceptable. I was wrong.

Recently I began reading The Wish, another book by Ms. Levine. Fairly quickly into the book--probably by the end of the first chapter-- I realized that the book was not wholesome or appropriate. I was very disappointed. The Wish was just not the kind of literature I wanted have in my brain. The book was very, very crude and I quickly stopped reading it. A little while later I was in a bookstore, and I found two other books by the Gail Carson Levine. They were both fairy tales, so I thought that they might be okay to read. The Wish was set in a modern day school, so I figured that the fairy tales would be fine to read. I decided against buying one of them, called Fairest, because it too had crude content and sexual references.

At the time the other one, The Two Princesses of Bamarre, seemed fine to me so I got it. Lets just say that that was a mistake. I got home and began reading it. I didn't even get halfway through the book before I put it away on my bookshelf and stopped ready it. The book includes a "good sorcerer". Okay, that in itself is a problem. I don't believe there can ever be "good sorcerers". Witchcraft is an evil thing and I do everything I can to stay away from it.

Over all, I am a disappointed in Ms. Levine. While I would recommend Ella Enchanted, some Of her other books I would just stay away from.

Series by Janette Oke

Below are three good series by author Janette Oke.

Click here to visit Janette's website.

Love Comes Softly

Oke, Janette

*Love Comes Softly

*Love’s Enduring Promise

*Love’s Long Journey

*Love’s Abiding Joy

Love’s Unending Legacy

Love’s Unfolding Dream

Love Takes Wing

Love Finds a Home

Marty Claridge and her husband Clem have left everything behind and traveled west. Suddenly a terrible accident occurs, leaving Marty widowed. Then Clark Davis comes along. He is a widower with an infant girl named Missie. He asks Marty to marry him. She yes, but only because she needs a husband and Clark needs a mother for Missie. So Marty is now married to Clark but can she grow to love him the way she loved her first husband?

* Love Comes Softly, Love’s Enduring Promise, Love’s Long Journey, and Love’s Abiding Joy have all been made into movies.

A Prairie Legacy (sequel to the Love Comes Softly series.)

Oke, Janette

The Tenders Years

A Searching Heart

A Quiet Strength

Like Gold Refined

This series follows the legacy of Clark and Marty Davis. This series is about their granddaughter, Virginia. Virginia is your average 19^th century teenager. But when Virginia’s best friend turns her back on her and the man she thought she would marry tells her he doesn’t love her anymore, Virginia has to remember her Savior and put her faith in Jesus.

Canadian West

Oke, Janette

When Calls the Heart

When Comes the Spring

When Breaks the Dawn

When Hope Spring New

Beyond the Gathering Storm

When Tomorrow Comes

Elizabeth is a teacher in a city in Eastern Canada. Then her older brother asks her to move to Calgary, his home town. There is a teaching position there that he has recommended her for. Along comes a member of the RCMP, or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Even trough mistakes and misunderstanding, Elizabeth finds herself falling in love with this handsome policeman.

Elizabethan Era Books

Here are some books that are set in or around the time of Queen Elizabeth I.

A Murder for Her Majesty

Hilgartner, Beth

Alice Tuckfield is eleven years old. She is also an orphan. When her father is suddenly murdered by men posing as agents from the queen, Alice escapes to York. Her father had told her that should anything happen to him, she should go to the city of York and find Lady Jenny at Chellisford Hall. Once in York, Alice finds herself desperately lost. She accidentally runs into a couple choirboys, who give her food and shelter. Then one of them, Geoffrey, decides to disguise Alice as a boy, and to have her sing in the cathedral choir.

ISBN: 0395414512

Stink Alley

Gilson, Jamie

Orphaned Lizzy Tinker is a Pilgrim in Leiden, Holland in 1614. She and her parents escaped from Scrooby, England in 1608. Now her parents are dead and she has been taken in by Master William Brewster, who lives in Stink Alley. Then Lizzy gets a kitchen job in the house of a prosperous miller. One her first day of work she meets the son of the miller. He won’t tell Lizzy his name, and he tricks her into riding on one of the sails on the windmill that runs his father’s mill. Master Brewster isn’t to happy about it when he finds out what Lizzy did. Then Lizzy finds out that there are English spies in the city that want to find Master Brewster and take him back to England. Will Lizzy be able to save him? And who is the mysterious boy?

ISBN: 0688178642

The Lady Grace Mysteries

Finney, Burchett, Vogler

Assassin ISBN: 0385731515

Betrayal ISBN: 0385731523

Conspiracy ISBN: 0385731531

Deception ISBN: 0385733216

Exile ISBN: 0385733224

Fued ISBN: 0385733232

Gold ISBN: 0385608527

Haunted ISBN: 0385608535

Grace Cavendish is a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth the First. She has a love for mysteries, and after she solves several cases the Queen asks her to be her own Lady Pursuivant or her private investigator. * Note: Assassin, Betrayal, Conspiracy, and Fued are written by Patricia Finney. Deception, Exile Gold and Haunted are written by Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler.

I found this series to be very good. I would recommend them for ages 12 and up. To read more about them click here.