Essays on Ella Minnow Pea

The book is set on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. The island is named after Nevin Nollop, the creator of the pangram “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
The book begins with a letter from the Council of Elders of Nollop to the citizens of the island, informing them that the letter N has fallen from the Nollop Monument, and that, according to Nollop’s will, this is a sign that they must no longer use the letter N.
The Council enacts a series of increasingly strict measures to enforce this ban, including banning books with the letter N, and eventually banning all words with the letter N. The citizens of the island begin to rebel against the Council’s rules, and Ella Minnow Pea, a young woman who is one of the most vocal opponents of the Council, begins to write a letter to the people of the world, documenting the decline of the island and the people’s fight to keep their language alive.