PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- I'm indulging myself by mentioning this classic, one of the eight books that Jansson wrote about the woodland denizens of the far north. It has been around for 75 years now! - and is as charming and delightful and just a little bit strange as it was when I first read it half a century ago. Now I also see the wisdom and subtle lessons within... Moomins are gentle creatures who hibernate for winter and have adventures in all the other seasons. There's a little bit of risk and danger, but everything always works out in the end! They are part of a community of creatures where each character has their foibles and quirks, and everyone else tolerantly accommodates their differences. Chapters are all self-contained episodes, so it makes for perfect bedtime reading - or perfect re-reading at any age! Lindy
Tove Jansson was born in Finland in 1914. She began her career as a cartoonist and went on to write and illustrate many books for adults and children. She drew her first Moomin in the 1930s, just for fun, and in 1945 he became a character in a children's story. Tove became world-famous for her Moomin books, which began with The Moomins and the Great Flood in 1945, closely followed by Comet in Moominland in 1946, Finn Family Moomintroll in 1948 and six more Moomin adventures. During the winter months Tove lived and worked in Helsinki, but in the summertime she stayed on a beautiful remote island in the Gulf of Finland with her long-term partner, the artist Tuulikki Pietil . Tove Jansson received many prestigious awards during her lifetime, including the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal. She died in 2001, aged eighty-seven.
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- I'm indulging myself by mentioning this classic, one of the eight books that Jansson wrote about the woodland denizens of the far north. It has been around for 75 years now! - and is as charming and delightful and just a little bit strange as it was when I first read it half a century ago. Now I also see the wisdom and subtle lessons within... Moomins are gentle creatures who hibernate for winter and have adventures in all the other seasons. There's a little bit of risk and danger, but everything always works out in the end! They are part of a community of creatures where each character has their foibles and quirks, and everyone else tolerantly accommodates their differences. Chapters are all self-contained episodes, so it makes for perfect bedtime reading - or perfect re-reading at any age! Lindy
Beautiful words. Anarchic illustrations. Tove Jansson is a genius. They seem to grow in wisdom and delight every time I read them...a perfect marriage of word and picture. It's not just Tove Jansson's wonderfully strange fairytale world that so appeals but also her beautiful line work and exquisite sense of design.
