Madison Book Club Meetup Group

Name: June 2013 - ELLA MINNOW PEA
Start: 2013-06-27T00:00:00Z
Location: Barnes & Noble

June 2013 - ELLA MINNOW PEA

Jun 26, 2013 · 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble

The Date and time for this discussion have been changed! If this changes your attendance status, please update your RSVP. Thanks! For June, we will read Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (recommended by Jaime). Dunn transports readers to the imaginary island of Nollop, named for Nevin Nollop, inventor of the pangram (a sentence using all letters of the alphabet) "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." It is an idyllic place, free from technological innovations like television and computers, where Nollopians devote themselves to the liberal arts and especially to the cultivation of language. But when a tile containing the letter "Z" falls from the monument the islanders have erected to honor Nollop and his illustrious sentence, a chain of events is set in motion which will threaten the very foundations of the Nollopian state. The High Island Council calls an emergency session to discuss the fallen letter and in it they see a sign and portent, a message from the great Nollop himself to cease all use of the letter "Z" in spoken and written communication. The Council passes a law against uttering words containing the letter; punishment for violating their strictures can lead to banishment and even death. And as further letters begin to fall, Ella Minnow Pea and her family, along with the rest of community, are forced to live under linguistic siege. Books are destroyed. Newspapers shut down. Citizens are publicly flogged, placed in stocks, their property confiscated and their lives ruined, all for slips of the tongue. But with the help of Nate Warren, a researcher living in South Carolina, the islanders decide to fight back, vowing to create a pangram even shorter and therefore more dazzling than the one for which Nollop has been elevated to divine status. The only question is: can they do it before all is lost?
This book also is also available in an illustrated version.

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Gina

Sorry, just found out that my dad is going to be in town. Maybe next time. Have fun!!!

0 · June 24, 2013
VC

Thanks for selecting this book. I won't be able to attend but it's a great read. I wouldn't have discovered this book without your recommendation.

0 · June 15, 2013
Valerie C.

Driving great-nephews to swimming class. Wish I could come, but realized I won't be back from Marshall in time.

0 · June 15, 2013
A former member

Hey! I'm still planning on being here, but I do have some curriculum meetings at the school I just got hired at (north of West Bend) that day. I think I'll be back in town by then, but I may be late. I'll keep everyone posted!

0 · June 13, 2013
A former member

This is a GREAT book!

0 · May 14, 2013