Moominsummer Madness [Paperback]

Tove Jansson (Author, Illustrator), Thomas Warburton (Translator)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Moomin

When a flood sweeps through the valley, the Moomins must find a new house. And with typical Moomin good luck, one just happens to be floating by. It looks normal enough, but there are curtains where one wall should be, strange rows of lights, and other odd amenities. Then Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden disappear, and the family realize that the house may hold the answers to more than they ever dreamed.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fanciful Moominfolk take to the stage as only they can in this series of droll escapades. Ages 7-10.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“There is, in short, everything in the Moon books: giant comets and secret caves and tree houses and stilts and magic-carpet clouds and amusement parks run by despotic practical-joking kings and time machines and ski instructors.” –Harper’s

“We need Moominland for its gentle pace, its sense of beauty and awe, and its spirit of friendliness and empathy—now more than ever.” –The Horn Book

“These charming fantasies are propelled by a childlike curiosity and filled with quiet wisdom, appealing geniality, and a satisfying sense of self-discovery.” –School Library Journal.com

“If you had no shame reading Harry Potter on the subway, there’s no need to hide Tove Jansson’s witty, whimsically illustrated Finnish series.” –Daily Candy

“The Moomin books make for both splendid bedtime read-alouds and solitary savoring.” –Wall Street Journal

 

“It’s more than forty years since Jansson’s Moomintrolls first appeared. I found the writing and invention as appealing as ever. She has a thistledown touch.”—The Washington Post Book World

“The adventures of the easygoing Moomintrolls have all the crispness and tart surprise of a lingonberry, thanks to Jansson’s ineffably light touch, her uncanny sensitivity to universal childhood emotions, and her gift for terse, naturalistic dialogue.”—Entertainment Weekly

“A gentle, offbeat fantasy.”—The Horn Book

“A lost treasure now rediscovered . . . A surrealist masterpiece.”—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

“Tove Jansson is undoubtedly one of the greatest children’s writers there has ever been. She has the extraordinary gift of writing books that are very clearly for children, but can also be enjoyed when the child, like me, is over sixty and can still find new pleasures with the insights that come from adulthood.”—Sir Terry Pratchett

“Clever, gentle, witty, and completely engrossing.”—Jeff Smith, author of Bone

“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.”—Lauren Child

“[Tove Jansson] is a master.”—The Times Literary Supplement (London)

“The most original works for children to be published since the Pooh books, and possibly, since Alice.”—Saturday Review

“You will declare yourself a citizen of Moominvalley and call the stories your own—the Moomin world is that compelling.”—Riverbank Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Square Fish; Reprint edition (April 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312608918
• ISBN-13: 978-0312608910
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #189,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

TOVE JANSSON (1914-2001) is revered around the world as one of the foremost children's authors of the twentieth century for her illustrated Moomin chapter books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ranks with Pooh as classic children's lit, December 12, 2001

By 

Gideon Ansell (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Moominsummer Madness (Paperback)

I discovered this book while rummaging through a flea market bookshelf 5 years ago. I had never heard of Jansson or the Moomins, but was looking for something to read to my daughter, who was then 6. With nothing more than an interesting cover illustration to recommend it, I took a 10cent gamble.

Within the first 10 pages I realized that I had stumbled onto something quite remarkable, by the middle of the book both my daughter and I were engulfed in Moominland, and by the end I went out to scour bookshelves and web sites to get my hands on all the other Moomin books.

Quite simply, this series (and this book in particular) ranks with Winnie-the-Pooh and the Alice books as the truest, wisest, funniest, and most beautiful books for kids ever written. Tove Jannson has created a world populated with myriad creatures possessing a variety and depth of character unrealized in any other children's series I can think of, and rarely reached in adult fiction.

Of particular note are her numerous and varied female characters, unheard of in American and English children's lit...Little My is brash, determined, unrepentant, and spoiling for a good fight. Moominmamma is warm and nurturing without ever being sappy or sentimental. Long sufering Misabel looks only at the bluer side of life and relishes a good cry. The Snork Maiden is vain and frivolous. Emma is cantankerous, crochety, and uninterested in changing to suit anyone else's agenda. How many other books can you read to a young girl with that variety of female characters? And that's just the beginning of the list. The male characters are equally as varied, fallible, goofy, and complex.

Character aside, Jansson's sense of adventure, wild imagination, bleak Scandinavian humor, and peaceful world view make these books a marvel to read. Her illustrations are gorgeous, plentiful, and a perfect compliment to her writing.

My daughter is 11 now and doesn't require a parent to read to her anymore, yet she still asks to hear the Moomin books read aloud.

My advice...give Harry Potter a rest, and treat yourself and family to real classic children's lit. You won't be sorry. And if you like this one, Moominland Midwinter and Comet in Moominland are great next choices.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply a Classic., July 5, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Moominsummer Madness (Paperback)

The Moomin books are extremely unique in the realm of children's literature. They are clean, endearing, thoughtful, a little dark, and always utterly enchanting. I am in high school now, and I still love to read these books.

I first recieved a copy of Finn Family Moomintroll from an aunt who read and loved them in HER childhood, spent in Japan. I devoured it, and promptly begged my mother to find more. Now, several years later, I am still held spellbound by these books. They are quirky, charming, full of clever witticisms and simple, wonderful turns of phrase, and are among the many hidden gems which so many cynical youngsters will scorn for lack of blood.

This book, though contains plenty of fun and even a little revenge (provided by Snufkin, of course,) but of course the characters are forever polite. Better yet, they set a good example for kids without shoving sticky-sweet morals down their throats. In addition, by setting the story around a theatre - which the Moomin family knows absolutely nothing about - Jansson gives the reader a humorous edge over the characters, which helps keep the story moving and the reader amused.

These books should be introduced to young, thoughtful children, older, shy children, college students, people going through mid-life crises, and/or those in rest homes. They are to be read in a comfy chair before a fire on a gray, rainy day, or with the snow coming down and a mug of cocoa. These books are only for those who have open, quiet minds, and for people ready to be enchanted and amazed.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best Moomin books..., May 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Moominsummer Madness (Moomintrolls) (Hardcover)

I received this book as a Christmas present in the early 50s from a Finnish family whom my mother helped through the hard times of WWII and after with her version of CARE packages.

Moominsummer Madness became my favorite of all my books--read until the red hardboard cover faded to pink and the binding frayed. My personal favorite interaction is Moomintroll and the Fillyjonk at her hut in the spruce forest on Midsummer's Eve. When I first read it, I didn't have a clue what Midsummer was or what a spruce tree looked like, but I immediately resolved to have a life full of both as soon as I could escape from Eisenhowerian Oklahoma.

And I did just that.