this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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Moomin Valley
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This is a community for all things Moomin.
The Moomins is a franchise created by finnish author/illustrator Tove Jansson. It features a vast amount of comics, TV series, movies, books and games, telling various stories mostly set in moominvalley.
If you are new to the Moomins, this video essay is a fantastic starting point to learn about this family-owned franchise.
More European works:
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This is super dark. These were kid's books?
No. The novels were for all ages. And they still got into heavy subjects, with an introspective and thoughtful tone. The books use the environs of a fantasy world to tell stories about real-world problems like identity and love.
When looked at through the lens Tove's personal life, each book fairly clearly explores thoughts and feelings she would have been dealing with during that time in her life.
The newspaper comic strips were for adults, and often took on political satire and caricatures. They feature a far less serious and more comedic version of the Moomin world.
You should think of the two as completely unrelated projects.
Interesting! I became aware of the Moomins fairly recently, within the past few years. Most of my experience so far has been fairly light topics; this one is out there.
I highly recommend the novels.
My dad reading "Moominpappa at sea" to me one chapter a night as a bedtime story, is seared into my mind.
You might start with book 7. "Tales from moomivalley" as it is a collection of short stories, one of which is "The invisible child"-story that was adapted for the TV series. It's essentially a story about child abuse, as it tells the story of Ninny, a girl who has ceased to be visible. She was abused by her guardian to the point she wished she'd cease to exist, and that is essentially what has happened, as she can be neither seen nor heard.
The Moomin family take her in and begin her recovery, by basically being kind to thin air.
The other books follow a loosely chronological order, and are full-on novels.
I'll do that, thank you