LoveReading4Kids Says
January 2011 Guest Editor Jenny Downham:
"I wish I’d written every single one of Tove Jansson’s Moomin series, but forced to choose I’ll pick number five, Moominland Midwinter, because it’s darker and more introspective than the earlier books, with just a hint of delicious danger. This is a hilarious and tender tale that you will never grow out of. Tove Jansson is a genius and believe me, this book is proof!"
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."
LoveReading4Kids
About Moominland Midwinter
A Fabulous Find from the Moomin Archives A classic Moomin Book with COLOUR ILLUSTRATIONS And a beautiful FOLD-OUT PANORAMA In 1961, at the request of her Italian publishers, Tove Jansson created a unique new edition of Moominland Midwinter, the tale in which Moomin wakes from hibernation to contend alone with the mysterious world of winter. The text and internal line drawings of this much loved story were unchanged, but Tove added a beautiful new cover illustration and seven glorious full-page colour illustrations.
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Moominland Midwinter Synopsis
A Fabulous Find from the Moomin Archives A classic Moomin Book with COLOUR ILLUSTRATIONS And a beautiful FOLD-OUT PANORAMA In 1961, at the request of her Italian publishers, Tove Jansson created a unique new edition of Moominland Midwinter, the tale in which Moomin wakes from hibernation to contend alone with the mysterious world of winter. The text and internal line drawings of this much loved story were unchanged, but Tove added a beautiful new cover illustration and seven glorious full-page colour illustrations.
This was the only Moomin title that she illustrated in colour and it has long been a prized item for collectors. For the first time, it is available in English. For this new Sort Of edition, Tove's nephew James Zambra restored the original cover and colour illustrations, along with a glorious fold-out panorama of characters from the book, which Tove Jansson painted for the first French edition.
Sort Of Books have also added a back cover designed for the first Swedish edition of Moominland Midwinter, an image used on the first Puffin book, and a playful bookplate 'wreath' from the first German book. We believe this is the most beautiful Moomin book ever published!
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781908745996 |
| Publication date: |
14th October 2021 |
| Author: |
Tove Jansson |
| Publisher: |
Sort Of Books an imprint of Sort of Books |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
176 pages |
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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.
More About Tove Jansson
