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Lady Fancifull

~ adventures in a mainly literary obsession

Lady Fancifull

Daily Archives: May 26, 2013

Tove Jansson – Finn Family Moomintroll

26 Sunday May 2013

Posted by Lady Fancifull in Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Fiction, Reading

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Book Review, Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson

Instant Sunshine on the Darkest of Days

FinnFamilyMoominFinn Family Moomintroll absolutely delighted me as a child, and continued to delight me when my reading tastes became extremely serious and intellectual in my middle teens (Dostoyevski!) When I was getting rid of my childhood books, FFT was never a reject. Even an intense teenager into heavy duty Russian literature had the sense to see this book would last a lifetime.

I’ve really enjoyed all the other clearly adult reviewers onTove_Jansson_1956 Amazon waxing lyrical about Tove Jansson‘s books. In adulthood I discovered Moomintroll and his wonderful family were a series of books, and it’s been as an adult that I’ve bought and enjoyed the rest of the series.

Jansson has a warm, quirky, imaginative and unpatronising view of her world and its strange creatures. Moomimamma with her handbags, cuddly warmth and excellent cooking, dreamy Moominpappa, Moomintroll and his friends are as delightful company to a small child as to a large much older child-disguised-as-or-pretending-to-be-adult.

The beautiful writing is accompanied by Jansson’s wonderful pen and ink illustrations.

Lest this all seems as if its impossibly fluffy and anodyne – there’s enough darkness loss and fearfulness within the pages to satisfy a small child’s desire to BE a little frightened, from time to time – but its not at a level which might mean your small one wakes screaming from a terrible nightmare!

There are so many delights to discover within the pages of the book. Look out for the outlandish words on the loose and the fluffy clouds that can be ridden!

…………….and I can still hear Snufkin playing that most welcoming and happy of tunes ‘all small creatures have bows in their tails’

300px-Moomin_kuva

Finn Family Moomintroll Amazon UK
Finn Family Moomintroll Amazon USA

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