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Ella Minnow Pea: 20th Anniversary Illustrated Edition by Mark Dunn

$29.95

In this special anniversary edition, Mark Dunn is joined by talented illustrator Brittany Worsham in an illuminating, beloved story relating to language and freedom and human dignity in an era of political oppression.

First published by MacAdam/Cage in 2001, Mark Dunn’s novel Ella Minnow Pea celebrates its twentieth anniversary under the roof of Penguin/Random House and the British publisher Methuen. Over the years it has become a mainstay of book clubs and middle-school and high-school English classes, has inspired a stage musical LMNOP, and is the recipient of multiple accolades, including winning the 2001 Borders Original Voices competition for fiction.

Set on a fictional island off the coast of South Carolina, Ella Minnow Pea takes readers to the homeland of the late Nevin Nollop, the inventor of the pangram “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Lionized for this achievement, he’s been honored with a monument featuring this famous phrase. But life for Nollopians drastically changes when the tile containing the letter “z” topples from the statue and island authorities interpret the fall as a message from Nollop from beyond the grave. They waste no time in banning this letter from all use. As other tiles fall, additional laws are passed which put increasing communicational constraints on the islanders, and ultimately undermine all the freedoms they had heretofore taken for granted. It is up to a young woman named Ella to restore order and sanity to the nation of Nollop, using the very tools used by Mr. Nollop to win the day.

Readers, both longtime fans of the book and those newly discovering its power and literary merit, will cherish this special keepsake edition.

Publication Date: May 2, 2023
Hardback: 216 pages
ISBN: 9781950539611

In this special anniversary edition, Mark Dunn is joined by talented illustrator Brittany Worsham in an illuminating, beloved story relating to language and freedom and human dignity in an era of political oppression.

First published by MacAdam/Cage in 2001, Mark Dunn’s novel Ella Minnow Pea celebrates its twentieth anniversary under the roof of Penguin/Random House and the British publisher Methuen. Over the years it has become a mainstay of book clubs and middle-school and high-school English classes, has inspired a stage musical LMNOP, and is the recipient of multiple accolades, including winning the 2001 Borders Original Voices competition for fiction.

Set on a fictional island off the coast of South Carolina, Ella Minnow Pea takes readers to the homeland of the late Nevin Nollop, the inventor of the pangram “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Lionized for this achievement, he’s been honored with a monument featuring this famous phrase. But life for Nollopians drastically changes when the tile containing the letter “z” topples from the statue and island authorities interpret the fall as a message from Nollop from beyond the grave. They waste no time in banning this letter from all use. As other tiles fall, additional laws are passed which put increasing communicational constraints on the islanders, and ultimately undermine all the freedoms they had heretofore taken for granted. It is up to a young woman named Ella to restore order and sanity to the nation of Nollop, using the very tools used by Mr. Nollop to win the day.

Readers, both longtime fans of the book and those newly discovering its power and literary merit, will cherish this special keepsake edition.

Publication Date: May 2, 2023
Hardback: 216 pages
ISBN: 9781950539611

PRAISE FOR ELLA MINNOW PEA

“Cleverness is the hook with this little fable—those delighting in wordplay will be duly rewarded by seeing language stretched to its limits.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A novel bursting with creativity, neological mischief and clever manipulation of the English language. ... Wordsmiths of every stripe will appreciate this whimsical fable, in which Dunn brilliantly demonstrates his ability to delight and captivate.” —Publishers Weekly

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR

Mark Dunn is the author of twenty published plays and a dozen works of fiction and non-fiction, most recently Texas People’s Court: The Fascinating World of the Texas Justice of the Peace published in 2022 by Texas A&M University Press and the play The Puzzle with the Piazza (Concord Theatricals) which he made available for royalty-free streaming productions for theaters during the pandemic. His plays Belles, Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain, A Delightful Quarantine, and The Glitter Girls have together received over three-hundred productions throughout the world.

Born and raised on the Westside of Detroit, Brittany Worsham learned art from her mother and storytelling from her father. As a child and teen, she constantly disappeared into the works of fiction, only to reemerge armed with nearly infinite excuses for mischief and reasons to stay optimistic. In 2018, she packed her sketchbooks and started her own adventure in rural Vermont. There, she joined the AmeriCorps VISTA program to alleviate poverty and ease the effects of the opioid crisis in the region through access to educational and creative programming. Brittany currently lives in Chicago with her cat. Her most recent project is illustrating the 20th Anniversary edition of Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. She also writes mystery and speculative fiction for children and young adults.

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