Synopsis
Forebodings about a star with a tail lead Moomintroll and his friend Sniff on a quest to a mountain observatory, but the real adventure begins when they learn a comet is headed for earth.
Children's Literature
Tove Jansson (1914—2001) is a legend in Finland. This Moomin book was first published in English in 1951; the Moomin series went on to become a cult in many languages, inspiring a comic strip, a play, a television puppet series, a Japanese animated series, and a theme park in Finland. Tove Jansson won the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1966. Since 2010 marks the 65th anniversary of the Moomins' appearance, there is a new American edition with bright covers, the same translation, and all of Jansson's strikingly original pen-and-ink illustrations. Comet in Moominland has a strange, almost prophetic resonance: there have been warnings of a comet heading straight for Moomin Valley. As Moomintroll and his friends Sniff, Snufkin, and the Snork maiden—an illustrated cast list is provided—set out on a journey to find a faraway observatory, the flaming comet comes steadily closer. The friends encounter a desert, overgrown animals, shrinking seas, barren mountains, a poisonous bush, and a tornado. Their adventures are a child's dream of freedom and enabling parents, but, as a good adventure should, this one ends with the adventurers safely home just in the nick of time. About the comet, Jansson tells us that "if it had come a tiny bit nearer to the earth I am quite sure that none of us would be here now. But it just gave a whisk of its tail and swept off to another solar system far away." Though some critics find the Moomins a trifle whimsical—they do evoke the ambience of Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows—there are sure to be readers and listeners who will adore their magical, amusing, very Nordic world. Reviewer: Barbara L. Talcroft