Some of you may be wondering, what’s with all the sudden Moomin-mania?
Well, this year is the 65th anniversary of the Moomins!
...We can sense some hesitation: what are Moomins?
Well, they’re like white hippos. And they’re Finnish. They’re sort of like the Finnish version of Winnie the Pooh and all his friends. They sprung from the imagination of artist and writer Tove Jansson 65 years ago, and over time became a European phenomenon! There have been cartoons, toys, and planes decorated with Moomin characters . . . there’s even a Moomin theme park in Finland!
Here at the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, we’ve known about the Moomins for a while now and want to spread the word in honor of this grand anniversary. As we have been trying to introduce people to the Moomins, we’ve come across plenty of folks who have already known all about them:
“A lost treasure now rediscovered...A surrealist masterpiece. Honest.”—Neil Gaiman
“Jansson was a genius of a very subtle kind. These simple stories resonate with profound and complex emotions that are like nothing else in literature for children or adults: intensely Nordic, and completely universal.”—Philip Pullman
