Alyce at At Home with Books hosts this meme – and it’s one of my favorites. I actually had to think quite a bit about which book I wanted to talk about this week – which is unusual for me, because I always seem to have one that pops into mind. One of my favorite gifts I gave this last year for Christmas is a quirky little novel written in letters with an.. interesting twist.
Description from GoodReads:
Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram,* “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere.
*pangram: a sentence or phrase that includes all the letters of the alphabet
When I first picked up this book I knew several friends had enjoyed it. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly surpassed any expectations I might have had.
As I read the book I became more and more engrossed in the amazement I felt that the author was able to write the book with the rules he had imposed upon himself. I will admit, for a few chapters I was so caught up in looking for mistakes I had a difficult time enjoying the story – but finally I just had to give in and trust and continue to read.
This is, overall, a story of censorship and how it can affect every day lives. It is done in such a quirky, fun fashion that the message can almost get lost, but it’s still there nonetheless.
This is in the top ten of books I recommend to people. It’s a book worth reading with an interesting message.
I can’t believe I haven’t heard of this one before! I love anything having to do with linguistics, and this sounds especially clever. I’ll have to add this one to the wish list.
I read this book a while ago, and I remember not liking it. I think I expected something different and that caused me to not like it. I should give it another chance, and reread it.