Ella Minnow Pea

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn is the cutest and most creative book I’ve read in ages. Yes, I just used several superlative adjectives to demonstrate how much I extremely enjoyed this novel.

The setting of the book is the island nation of Nollop just off the coast of South Carolina. Nevin Nollop is credited with writing the sentence, “The quick fox jumps over the lazy dog,” which uses all the letters of the alphabet with minimum repetition. Thus the country of Nollop is overly fond of words and vocabulary. The story is related through beautifully written letters between citizens of Nollop.

The events of the story lead to letter tiles of Nollop’s famous sentence falling from the statue in his honor. As each letter falls, the citizens are forbidden to use them. Consequences are extreme. Even as a teenager, the novel’s hero Ella must learn to cope with new ridiculous governmental edicts dictating that particular letters of the alphabet are banned from use.

Ella must find friends to work with her to save her country while dodging insane Nollop worshippers. She must step into new roles and challenges demanding her best vocabulary efforts and creativity. Ultimately, she must find a way to save those she loves from banishment.

This book is a fun satirical look at government through this fictional nation. It is also a hero’s journey following patterns of other great stories like Odyssey. Finally, this novel would be a great paired with The Giver, Utopia, and Anthem for a discussion on governments.