ELLA MINNOW PEA by Mark Dunn is a great novel on many levels. First
of all, it's funny. Next, it's unusual. Then, it's witty and wise.
It relates the story of one girl's fight for freedom of expression.
You see, Ella is a girl that lives on the island of Nollop off the
shoreline of the Palmetto State. The island is named after Nevin
Nollop, a sort of deity on their lands, for he was the one who
originated the immortal phrase "The quick brown fox jumped over the
lazy dog."

There is a large statue of Mr. Nollop on the island with his
immortal phrase written underneath. However, due to some faulty
adhesive properties, the letters have started to fall off,
shattering on the ground. The government is up in arms about what
to do in regard to the falling letters. Is it Mr. Nollop's spirit
dropping them? Is Mr. Nollop telling them something from the ether?
The totalitarian government thinks it so, so every letter that
drops is one less letter the natives are allowed to speak or even
write. Goodness me! What are the residents to do now that the
letter T has dropped off? And the Q? And the D? As the letters fall
from the statue, they also fall away from the novel, leading the
reader into a quirky tale that linguists will love and people with
happy imaginations will delight in.

Dunn, a writer of startling inventiveness, has written something
that perhaps will be around years later, delighting young and old.
It is that good of a tale. The story itself is in letters,
epistolary notes between residents on the island. The main
protagonist (Ella Minnow Pea) is a uniting of letters, L, M, N, O,
P. There are letters everywhere, strung together twixt this word
and that. Sadly, the government of Nollop takes those letters away,
snapping the ties that make, strung together, letters words, and
words thoughts.

It leaves our dear Ella Minnow Pea to her own wiles, fighting for
friends, family, and freedom.

If you mind your Ps and Qs, you'll find this story wondrous and
something that you'll give your friends to read and then they'll
give it to their friends.