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Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Dunn
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $2.84
You Save: $10.11 (78%)
Rating:  68 reviews
Sales Rank: 7970
Media: Paperback
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0385722435
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385722438
ASIN: 0385722435
Publication Date: September 17, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: The text is clean with some moderate exterior wear.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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.
*pangram: a sentence or phrase that includes all the letters of the alphabet
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| Customer Reviews: Read 63 more reviews...
 Witty fun wordplay mixed with important themes May 5, 2008
john alwyine-mosely (Bristol, UK)
Ella Minnow Pea is a first novel by Mark Dunn who is in fact a successful writer of over 25 plays. The novel structure is epistolary, which means that the story unfolds via letters between the characters. This is supposed to add greater realism to the story and demonstrate differing points of view without recourse to the device of an omniscient narrator. The approach was a popular 18th century device but mostly abandoned for most of the 19th and mid 20th century with the notable exceptions of Dracula by Bram Stoke and the Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. Recently it has a bit of a popular revivable with works such as The Boy Next Door (2002) by Meg Cabot and We Need to Talk about Kevin (2003) using the format.
Ella Minnow Pea is a slim 200-page book about Nollop, an isle off the coast of South Carolina, and home to Nevin Nollop, the supposed creator of the well-known pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." The island folk are best imagined as a type of Amish or Plain People who are happy to be in a pre industrial idyll. Then one day tiles fall off Nevin Nollop's statue knocking off a letter. This sets in train events in which that letter is forbidden in speech and writing on pain of punishment and eventual banishment.
The story is more then wordplay although the letters read aloud are a joy to hear. It also explores how an open accepting community gradually falls apart as neighbours turn on neighbour and as willing followers gradually also become victims. This is explored politically as free speech is lost and an increasingly power hungry elite take over and theologically as rival cults emerge and the emptiness of worshiping idols is shown. Alongside these important themes, we also see a love story unfold and a race to find a new pangram before all freedoms are lost that will reveal that Nevin Nollop's is a fraud.
In the end, you will either like the book because of the fun wordplay and important themes or you dislike the format and the limited characterization. I am of the former camp and so strongly recommend it.
Ella Minnow Pea!!! January 28, 2008
Student
Ella Minnow Pea is a charming book written by Mark Dunn. The book is written in the format of letters, written to and from Ella and her cousin, Tassie. The center of their town is dedicated to Nevin Nollop, who wrote the sentence with all twenty-six letters in the alphabet, 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.' When their monument falls and the letters of the sentence fall individually, the town government decides that the citizens must stop using the fallen letters. I liked this book quite a lot. It was unpredictable, funny and cute. It was written in proper English and was cleverly written. I recommend this book to people who love literature, and like to play with words and letters.
 Clever but .... January 26, 2008
Dick Johnson (Oklahoma USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
OK, it was clever. It was sort of fun and I'm sure took much work to write it. But it is not something to read again nor particularly something to talk about. "It's a book where the author keeps dropping letters he can use to tell the story ." "Huh?" "Fewer and fewer letters he can use. That's it." "Oh." Three stars for the effort, though if I think more about it, that may drop. I'll stop here.
Just superb - and I NEVER say that! January 21, 2008
R. Russell (FL, USA)
The slim novel succeeds on so many levels. At first for me it was an exceptionally delightful quick read - as a crossword and Scrabble enthusiast, I couldn't wait for each new linguistic limitation. But then I couldn't get Ella and her world out of my mind - for weeks she has been with me at every moment. I find myself telling people about the book in so many situations, including this primary season. I can't recommend this contemporary parable highly enough - read it!!
"Thou Shalt Not Use The Forbidden Letters!" -- Lord Nollop January 4, 2008
B. Merritt (WWW.FILMREVIEWSTEW.COM, Pacific Grove, California United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
A book for linguists, logo-rhythmic lovers and political satirists, Ella Minnow Pea doesn't just make plays on words, but on letters.
Taking place on the fictional island of Nollop (an autonomous nation of letter writing lovers off the coast of South Carolina and named after Nevin Nollop who coined the pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"), readers are introduced to this (initally) utopian society that has shunned technology and has an Office of High Council members who become dictatorial when tiles placed nearly 100 years ago on a cenotaph of Nevin Nollop begin falling off. These tiles are letters that spell out Nollops famous aforementioned pangram.. The first letter to fall was a "Z" from "lazy" and the High Council (in all it's venerated wisdom towards Lord Nollop) decide that it's a sign from Heavenly Nollop himself that they are to strike the letter Z from all correspondences and speech. Libraries are divested of any books that contain the offending consonant. Punishments/laws are laid out for those who use it (1st offense: warning. 2nd offense: flogging or being placed in a headstock in full public view. 3rd offense: banishment from the island. Refusal to leave the island shall be punishable by death), and anyone whose name has a Z in it must change it.
It all seems a bit ridiculous and inconvenient, but most Nollopians go with it on the off-chance that the council is correct. But then more tiles begin falling and more letters deleted from the islanders lexicon. People rip through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd offenses. Families are torn asunder or removed from the island completely by its militaristic henchmen who are guided by the Council.
But what if the Council is wrong? What if it's just wear and time that've caused the tiles to break loose and not some otherworldly message from Lord Nollop? Nonsense, says the Council. It's a sign.
As more and more families are forced to leave their Island sanctuary, the Council becomes greedy by confiscating the evacuated landholdings left behind and claiming it in the name of governmental need.
A challenge is finally put forth to disprove Nevin Nollops saintliness by coming up with a new pangram shorter than the original. But can it be done in time to save the island and its inhabitants?
The comedy is pretty high in Ella Minnow Pea. Told via letters written to various Nollopians, author Mark Dunn eliminates the lost consonants and vowels from his narrative as the story progresses and tiles are lost; a funny set of narratives that becomes a challenge as the story evolves. Example: months and days of the week are renamed with hilarious abandon ("Sunshine, Octane 22" ...That's Sunday, October 22).
Politically the focus is on the dangers of letting something truly ridiculous become accepted practice. But the narrative is handled so well that the nature of the story doesn't seem ridiculous at all. Mr. Dunn is in complete control of his twisted wording and language challenges, which makes Ella Minnow Pea such a unique and enjoyable read.
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