Staff Review: Moomin Madness!

During the tumultuous and destructive years of Word War II, the Swedish Finn artist Tove Jannson created an innocent and whimsical place called Moominland, and her life was forever changed. Eight books and sixty-seven years later, there are television series in several different languages, stage plays, a ballet, an opera, and even a theme park celebrating the whimsical and loveable characters that Jannson gave to the world. With the dawning of the new millennium, they were republished here in the states, and now we can read and delight in them right here.

"Comet in Moominland" starts the series off by sending Moomintroll on a journey away from Moominvalley with his best friends Sniff and Snufkin to discover the meaning of the light change, heat, and strange signs they have been seeing around their home. On their way they pick up a few more friends and make some surprising and funny discoveries. After reading this book to my nephews over the summer, we all found ourselves exclaiming "Well strike me pink!" right along with Moomintroll.

A magical hat enlivens Moominvalley in "Finn Family Moomintroll." Moomintroll and his friends sleep out in a cave, ride mysterious clouds, and witness the electrical hattifatteners. There are so many strange and wonderful characters in this story that I can't even begin to pick my favorite. Even the earthworms are charming!

After finally finishing his memoirs, Moominpappa reads them aloud to Moominmamma, Moomintroll, Sniff and Snufkin in "Moominpappa's Memoirs." When leaving home to seek adventure, Moominpappa meets all kinds of interesting creatures, sails on the sea, and helps found a colony. A bit self-important and silly, but always lovable, Moominpappa is a very entertaining narrator.

 Before they came to Moominvalley, their home flooded and sent them on a very strange adventure, told in "Moominsummer Madness." For a time, they live in a floating theatre, 

"A theater is the most important sort of house in the world, because that's where people are shown what they could be if they wanted, and what they'd like to be if they dared to, and what they really are(p.97)."

Here they meet sad Misabel, Whomper, and put on a highly successful play.

  Now everyone knows that Moomins always hibernate through the winter, and that they've never seen snow. But one winter Moomintroll wakes up in his sleeping house and is bewildered by the cold, white world around him. A strange and lonely tale, "Moominland Midwinter" is full of discovery and silly capers by Little My as Moomintroll learns to navigate a completely different reality. My favorite part was meeting the Ancestor, a hairy little creature who lives in the stove.

 In "Tales from Moominvalley," Jansson collects nine fascinating  tales from Moominland. There's the Hemulen who leaves his miserable life handing out tickets at an amusement park, a creature so scared that she turns invisible, and a Fillyjonk who faces her fears. All of them unexpectedly wise and witty in their strange adventures.

Moominpappa is determined to find the real-life light house that looks exactly like the model that he built, so in "Moominpappa at Sea,"  the Moomin family, along with Little My, packs up their house in Moominvalley and sets out on a boat to find their new home. It all turns out to be quite different than what they expected, what with flighty sea horses, a mysterious fisherman and Moominmamma's mysterious garden, but they eventually learn how to make their new island a home.

"Moominvalley in November" leaves the friends of the Moomins puzzled at their disappearance and trying to make sense of Moominvalley without them. Snufkin, the Fillyjonk, Grandpa-Grumble, the Hemulen and Toft squabble and explore, eventually creating a new kind of family together.






You can read each story on it's own, but once you read one, you'll want to read them all. You might as well begin at the beginning. I hope you enjoy Moominland as much as I have!

--Andrea W., H.Q.