Book Club May 2021- Ella Minnow Pea

The way this one came about is kind of funny. I had heard of this book online and thought it sounded like a really cool concept. My original pick had been Midnight Library, but then we were worried most of us wouldn’t be able to get it from the library in time. So, I then switched my pick to Ella Minnow Pea and Logan said we could do Midnight Library in May for her pick. Well, we ended up being able to get Midnight Library (obviously, haha you’ve read that review), so instead, Logan offered to do Ella for her May choice.

By: Mark Dunn
Published Year: 2001
Publisher: McAdam/Cage Publishing
Pages: 205

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Ella Minnow Pea is an epistolary novel set in the fictional island of Nollop situated off the coast of South Carolina and home to the inventor of the pangram The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog. Now deceased, the islanders have erected a monument to honor their hero, but one day a tile with the letter “z” falls from the statue. The leaders interpret the falling tile as a message from beyond the grave and the letter is banned from use. On an island where the residents pride themselves on their love of language, this is seen as a tragedy. They are still reeling from the shock, when another tile falls and then another.... Mark Dunn takes us on a journey against time through the eyes of Ella Minnow Pea and her family as they race to find another phrase containing all the letters of the alphabet to save them from being unable to communicate. Eventually, the only letters remaining are LMNOP, when Ella finally discovers the phrase that will save their language.

What I thought

Ella Minnow Pea is an epistolary novel about the island/country of Nollop which is named after the fictional man who created the sentence “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” As a result, they greatly value language and they have a statue of Nollop and the sentence up on their town square. One day, the letter “Z” falls off of the statue and the council decides that this is a sign from the great Nollop that they must remove this letter from the alphabet. However, as each letter continues to fall, the council’s rules become more and more strict and difficult.

This was a fun and easy book that I’m excited to discuss with everyone. It was a bit crazier than I thought it was going to be. I didn’t’ realize that there were going to be such strict consequences for using the eliminated letters. I think there’s an important message within the actions of the council and how they worship Nollop as well as not listening to their community members.

I don’t know if I really had any feelings towards Ella herself, but I did like her cousin Tassie a lot. Maybe because a lot of her letters were written to Ella so we heard more from her point of view I connected with her more. But I don’t think connecting to the characters are the main point of this tale.

It was kind of fun to see how the writing changed as they lost more and more letters. It did get to a point where they started to substitute letters and therefore not use traditional spellings which made it a little trickier to read until you got the hang of it.

If you want a unique, fun, easy book and you enjoy language and epistolary novels I definitely recommend checking it out.

What Book Club Thought

We all enjoyed this one! It’s a very thoughtful novel ad we had a lot to discuss. We all agreed that there is a lot more to this novel that initially meets the eye. So many subtle themes and lessons that can be learned. We also talked about how this would be a great novel for middle schoolers to read and discuss. With the concept of group think, how language effects society, and even the idea behind false idealization leading to cult like behavior would be so great for them to read about and discuss. And since this novel is a pretty easy read, it would be accessible to most. Though the later part may be a bit difficult for students with dyslexia.