Moomin Love

The moomins, comic book cover by Tove Jansson. From left to right: Sniff, Snufkin, Moominpappa, Moominmamma, Moomintroll (Moomin), Mymble, Groke, Snork, Maiden and Hattifatteners

I picked up my first Moomin book quite by accident in a Japanese bookstore/stationary store in downtown L.A. Stores like these have the best collection of gumdrop colored notebooks, wacky stickers, gorgeous pens, anime character paperclips and everything else to get your step-daughter excited about having a "desk" and starting "real" school, which was why I was there in the first place. The Moomin book was a bonus - a Finnish/Swedish comic book translated into English sitting among a slew of Japanese manga.

It is hard to say what exactly is so captivating about the Moomins. Is it their loveable bovine-like faces? Their odd, cute names? The sweet and wise way the Moomins talk?

Snufkin, for example, comments on freedom: "One can never be entirely free, if one admires someone else too much." Little My on possession: "Possession means worries and luggage bags one has to drag along."

Suffice to say, Moomins and the Moominvalley they inhabit are completely irresistible. It is the type of world and adventure you will share with your child at bedtime and then put down yourself until your own bedtime.

The creation of Tove Jansson, a Finnish artist who began writing and drawing the world of Moomins in the 1950s as a serial comic strip, Moomins have been big in Europe and Japan for decades. There was even a brief "Moominmania" in the 1990s.

For the rest of us, it's time to catch up and befriend these contemplative, neurotic, funny, loving, melancholic, Nordic trolls. Pick up Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, Book One and let the Moominmania begin.

By Liz

You can find Moomin books at Amazon.com or if you just happen to be in Finland, you can go to either the Moominworld theme park in Naantali or the Moomin Museum in Tampere. Have fun!