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 everywhereElla 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 phrase containing all the letters of the alphabet, “The quick brown fox … 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 “a love letter to alphabetarians and logomaniacs everywhere” (Myla Goldberg, bestselling author of Bee Season).
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Very thought provoking.
A very imaginative book. The author’s style is unique to my mind, with lots of unusual non-words that could be words – in another time and place. When a tile falls off of the central cenotaph on the island nation of Nollop, the city fathers take drastic action that puts the citizenry in a mental quandary. The action is based on a premise that some approve and some don’t. A short book, worth the read.
I read this with my daughter over 10 years ago when she was either in middle school or early high school; I can’t quite remember. What I do remember is that it was a book that stopped to make you think … could this happen? Oh wait, suppression already happens over and over and over in one form or another. I think that it would be an excellent choice to introduce to a book group.
A thought provoking Book.
First layer is funny, but as you read more it becomes very thought provoking. The actions in the story can be applied to many situations. Highly recommended.
Ella Minnow Pea was an original, creative book about an independent island country off the US’s east coast that venerated the man who wrote the sentence, “the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog”. It was both whimsical and thought provoking. I loved the epistolary style- it brought out the characters in a way narration does not. I highly recommend it!
This book seems whimsical initially but quickly becomes very thought provoking.