Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn

Mark Dunn's first novel, Ella Minnow Pea is introduced to us as 'A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable'. I have just read it for the second time and found it charming, frightening, clever, playful, thoughtful and inspiring all at once. The story is told through written correspondence, mostly between cousins Ella and Tassie, but also those of various other characters and sometimes even notes left for each other pinned to a fridge. The action takes place on the fictional island of Nollop, an independent Country 21 miles Southeast of South Carolina. Nevin Nollop, former islander, is hailed as the creator of the pangram sentence 'the quick ...  Read the complete review

As part of my job I like to keep up to date on the books people are talking about, or are GOING to be talking about. When a colleague told us about Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn at a staff meeting, I was intrigued and had to order it to check it out for myself. ~~~THE PLOT. This is the tale of a girl called Ella, who lives on the island of Nollop. The island is named after Nevin Nollop ~ a kind of demi-god to the people. Nevin left the islanders a legacy; a pangram which uses every letter of the alphabet ~ "THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG". These words are immortalized on a stone tablet under a statue of the great Mr Nollop. ...  Read the complete review