Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn

Playing catch-up. My book from the night before last. So, I'd been eyeing Ella Minnow Pea (say the title out loud) for quite a while, because hey, let's face it—it's got a great cover.

I'd like to say right now that it was my library director that finally pushed me over the edge and got me to read the book—and regardless of what she says, she is a nerd—anyone who likes this book as much as she does is a huge nerd. It was a lot of fun—people who love playing with language (or reading about playing with language) should give it a whirl.

The story is told in letters (epistolary), set on an island of people that revere Nevin Nollop, the man who (in the novel, beats me who really wrote it, but I refuse to believe that's a real person's name) came up with the famous sentence that includes the entire alphabet (pangram): The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. There's a statue of Nollop in town, and the letters of the sentence start falling—as they fall, the Town Elders start banning the usage of the letters, so the letters get more and more interesting as the town inhabitants try to continue communicating without using certain letters (lipogram)—and those are just the first four.

Oh, right. The first offense of using a banned letter: Verbal condemnation in front of the entire village. Second? Stocks for a day or a whipping. Your choice. Third? Banishment or DEATH. These people are not fooling around. Fun. Funny! I might even need to own it.