Finn Family Moomintroll

My love for Moomins started when I was 6-7. In Poland, where I come from, Moomins were very popular. After my Mom went through all 8 books, and me and my younger brother did not have enough of them, she started to invent new adventures of Moomin, Snufkin, and the rest of the pack. I wish I had noted all these stories... Anyway, this book is a good starting point, even though, chronologically, it is NOT the first one. You will see the Moominvalley at its best, full of adventures. "Finn Family Moomintroll" is a set of loosely connected stories; you can read one at a time without having to remember what happened last, or caring what will happen next (now, your child WILL insist that you keep on reading when you finish a story, you can be sure of that!). It is interesting how the Swedish names (I think Tove Jansson wrote the original in Swedish, even though she lived in Finland) got translated into different languages. I will give you English and Polish examples below. Can anyone else post here other translations? Moomintroll - Muminek Moominpappa - Tato Muminka Moominmamma - Mama Muminka Sniff - Ryjek Snufkin - Wloczykij Groke - Buka Muskrat - Pizmowiec Thingumy and Bob - Topik i Topcia Snork - Migotek Snork Maiden - Panna Migotka Hemulen - Paszczak Misabel - Bufka Too-ticky - Too-tiki Little My - Mala Mi

These books are nuts!!! Moomins! Fillyjonks! Grokes! It's insanity! How could a single mind invent such hallucinatory fantasy and still keep their sanity (relatively) intact?? The mind boggles.I am 29 years old and into a wide variety of weird and wonderful pop culture and I would definitely place the works of Tove Jansson in the same class as Genet,Burroughs,Bugakov and Tolkien. No joke! To explain them to the uninitiated, I would say something like...imagine a Winnie the Pooh novel composed by Dali...then double the level of surrealism! Convinced??Finn Family Moonintroll is probably the best, narrowly beating out Comet in Moominland, a close second. In this story, Moomintroll and his friends find a magic hat which brings them all sorts of mischief and absurdity. I think I first read this thing in 1982 and it just about haunted my every waking moment. The Moomin series are books that are NOT just for the kids to enjoy. Adults with a vivid imagination would ravenously lap this sort of thing up and beg for more.Forget Harry Potter kiddies! This is where it's at!!!

I was first exposed to the animated Moomin while visiting my penpal in Finland; I was all too delighted to have it assigned in a Scandanavian FairyTale class. This book can be read by both children and adults with equal glee. The straightforward adventures of the Moomins and their friends will delight children, and the wit and sly pokes at humans will amuse adults. Also, it is an excellent introduction to children's Finnish literature--it can never become outdated.

I remember my dad reading the Moomintroll books to me when I was very young. When I was a bit older, I read them again, myself. Now I'm 21, and thought I'd try reading this book once more, after all these years. I've just finished reading it, and it was great. Like most of the best children's fiction, it also appeals perfectly to adults, and although it was written over 40 years ago, I don't think it seems dated, really. There's a lot of sharp humour, and memorable situations/characters. A lot of the themes in the book seem perfectly in-line with amazing childhood exploits; Discovery, exploration... The book surprised me with how ahead-of-its-time it seemed. I don't think you'd find an English book from 1950 that is so liberated and foreward-thinking. Anyway, what I'm (clumsily) trying to say is, I loved this book, and will now read the other books in the series. One last thing: Tove Jansson's illustrations are also excellent, and perfectly complement the story.

When I was growing up in Japan back in 70's, "MoominTroll" was a big thing - they had animated TV series too. As soon as I'd learned how to read my dad bought me a full set of Moomin books. I remember as a first grader how hard I tried to read all words in the books - little by little, irritated sometimes for my poor reading skill since I was so fascinated by all the adventures in the Moomin Valley and was so impatient to know what they'd do next. If I'm not mistaken there were a few comic book series by same author/illustrator, Tove Jansson, about some wacky happenings in the Moomin Valley. All the copies I had had been lost long time ago. Wonder if anybody has any clue??