Ella Minnow Pea
by Mark Dunn
★ Top 25 book of 2001 · #17 on Best Books of 2001
On a fictional island devoted to language, letters begin falling from a monument honoring the pangram's inventor, and each one is banned from use. Young Ella must devise a clever solution to save the islanders' beloved words. Told through letters.
Best for: Word lovers who enjoy clever, playful novels told through correspondence
Ella Minnow Pea is #17 on BookWard's Best Books of 2001, out of 35 2001 books that cleared our data bar.
What Ella Minnow Pea is about
On the fictional island of Nollop, off the South Carolina coast, the townspeople revere the man said to have written the sentence containing every letter of the alphabet: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." When tiles bearing letters begin dropping from the memorial beneath his statue, the island's council reads each one as a divine order and bans that letter from speech and writing. Punishments climb from public scolding to lashes or the stocks, and finally to exile.
The novel is told entirely through letters and notes, and as letters vanish, the writing itself loses them too, so the reader feels the squeeze along with the characters. Young Ella is among those hoping that a new sentence, using only 32 letters, might change the council's mind. It is a witty, playful satire about censorship, blind devotion and what happens when language is taken apart. Word lovers and fans of clever constraints will enjoy it most. The author's debut, it won the Borders Original Voices Book of the Year award.
Ella Minnow Pea on the Best Books of 2001
Ella Minnow Pea came out in 2001. Of the 35 books first published in 2001 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #17 on our Best Books of 2001 list.
Why it made the list: 296 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.8 out of 5 (20 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2001 list
- The Noonday Demon Andrew Solomon, #15
- The Surgeon Tess Gerritsen, #16
- Tell No One Harlan Coben, #18
- Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1) Charlaine Harris, #19
See all Best Books of 2001 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2000 Best Books of 2002.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 250 want to read it, 8 are reading it now and 38 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.8 out of 5 from 20 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 66 | 55% |
| Reader love | 31 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 46 | 20% |
Questions about Ella Minnow Pea
When was Ella Minnow Pea published?
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn was first published in 2001.
Was Ella Minnow Pea one of the best books of 2001?
Ella Minnow Pea is #17 on BookWard's Best Books of 2001, out of 35 2001 books that cleared our data bar. 296 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.8 out of 5 (20 ratings).
Why is Ella Minnow Pea on the Best Books of 2001 list?
296 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.8 out of 5 (20 ratings).
More of the best books of 2001
- American Gods Neil Gaiman, #1
- Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time Brian Tracy, #2
- Crucial Conversations Kerry Patterson, #3
- Point Blanc Anthony Horowitz, #4
- Getting Things Done David Allen, #5
- Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand, #6
See the full Best Books of 2001, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
Find your own best books
Add what you have read, rate it, and BookWard will recommend what to read next.
Free while in beta. No credit card needed.