May 2010 Guest Editor Philip Ardagh says of this book:
What can I say? In early May, I'll be one of a number of guests of the Finnish Embassy and Puffin books celebrating 65 years of the remarkable Moomin books, written and illustrated by the late, great Finnish artist/illustrator/author Tove Jansson. How important are Moomin books to me as a reader, writer and (alleged) human being? When Jansson died, I dedicated the book I was writing at the time to her memory. The fact that the Finnish publisher of my Eddie Dickens trilogy was her original publisher means more than I can say. (Proud, or what?) Moomin books are like nothing else I'd ever read. I couldn't wait to spend my birthday-present book tokens on them. Sure, they contain charm and quirkiness, but this is coupled with insight and wisdom rare in any books, children's or otherwise. They are unique. If I had to chose a favourite, it would be Comet in Moominland. Choosing a favourite character is even harder. Little My? Snufkin? Sniff? If you haven't yet experienced the Moomin valley, I urge you visit it as soon as possible.
A comet is speeding towards Earth and nobody knows what to do!Will it destroy everything and everyone? Moomintroll decides to find out. So, with Sniff, he sets out on an expedition that promises to be packed with adventure and excitement!
Katy Guest, literary editor for The Independent on Sunday on the Moomin books: "A fantasy series for small children that introduces bigger ones to ideas of adventure, dealing with fear, understanding character and tolerating difference."
Author
About Tove Jansson
Tove Jansson (1914 – 2001), was born in 1914 in Helingsfors, Finland. Her mother was a charicaturist and the designer of many of Finland’s stamps, and her father was a sculptor. Tove studied painting in Finland, Sweden and France and later worked as a book illustrator, a designer and strip cartoonist, as well as being involved in theatre décor and making frescoes in public places. She drew her first Moomin in the 1930s, just for fun, to tease her little brother by drawing the ugliest creature she could think of. Moomin developed a nicer snout and character and in 1939 he became a character in a children’s story. The Finn Family Moomingtroll has been a hugely successful book, translated into many languages – many other Moomin stories followed.
In 1966 Tove Jansson was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal – an international award for the best children’s book of the year.
Most of the books were written on a small island in the Gulf of Finland where Tove, her mother and brother were the only inhabitants. Later Tove continued to live alone on the island - It takes an hour to row to the nearest island. Some years ago she wrote of the island:
‘It is so small you can walk around it in ten minutes. It is shaped like an atoll and surrounds a deep lake which in good weather makes a fine swimming pool, but in bad weather turns into a raging torrent surrounded by waterfalls. Then our boat has to be pulled right up to the house and tied to the veranda. We only have one tree, a rowan, which bloomed for the first time last summer. But we plant wild roses in the crevices, and potatoes. And we fish. We use rainwater for our coffee and driftwood for our fires. My favourite weather is fog, when the island seems to be afloat at the very end of the world in perfect silence and solitude. Only rarely does one hear the foghorns from the open sea where big ships go by for foreign countries.’
In this very special, beautiful and challenging environment Tove’s imagination and artistic talent flourished.
