Ella Minnow Pea
Mark Dunn
Blurb: Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram,* “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere. (From Goodreads)
Opening Sentence: "Dear Cousin Tassie, thank you for the lovely postcards."
Length: Short - 208 pages
Notes:What a creative, fun book! It's a really fast read - I read it in one day (although I did spend most of that day on an airplane...) I think one Goodreads review that I read said it best - "Love-letters to the English language and the human spirit, and also a cautionary tale on the dangers of wearing blinders in politics and religion."
Random quote : "Perhaps in time, Ella, the words we have lost will fade, and we will all stop summoning them by habit, only to stamp them out like unwanted toadstools when they appear. Perhaps they will eventually disappear altogether, and the accompanying halts and stammers as well: those troublesome, maddening pauses that at present invade and punctuate through caesura all manner of discourse. Trying so desperately we all are, to be ever so careful."
Recommend: yes
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