≡ Download The Book About Moomin Mymble and Little My Sort of Children Classics Tove Jansson 9780953522743 Books

The Book About Moomin Mymble and Little My Sort of Children Classics Tove Jansson 9780953522743 Books

Download As PDF : The Book About Moomin Mymble and Little My Sort of Children Classics Tove Jansson 9780953522743 Books

The Book About Moomin Mymble and Little My Sort of Children Classics Tove Jansson 9780953522743 Books

Huge fan of the Moomins and Tove Jansson. This picture book was "updated" from the previous one I had purchased my son 5 or 6 years ago. It was a read aloud favorite of his for a long time and so we wanted to share it with his younger cousins. The new translation is not nearly as charming and has lost its delightful rhythm and much of the wonderful rhyme pattern that made it such a hit. Very, very disappointed in this translation.


Tags : The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My (Sort of Children's Classics) [Tove Jansson] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Finnish artist Tove Jansson's Moomin stories have been continually in print for more than half a century,Tove Jansson,The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My (Sort of Children's Classics),Sort of Books,0953522741,Character books,Children: Kindergarten

The Book About Moomin Mymble and Little My Sort of Children Classics Tove Jansson 9780953522743 Books Reviews

I ordered 'The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My' from in 1997 since the book wasn't (and still isn't) available over here in England. I own (and treasure) all eight of Tove Jansson's Moomin novels, and I was curious to see this picture book. 'The Book about Moomin...' was an early work, and is targetted at children far more than Tove's later, more complicated work. It's a colorful picture book, telling a simple story of Moomintroll, Little My and her sister the Mymble. The artwork is all by Jansson and is in the same style as 'Comet in Moominland' and 'Finn Family Moomintroll', but is brought vividly to life here with a palette of psychedelically bright colors. Every Moomin fan will enjoy this book!
I was very excited to see this book available; but wish I knew before ordering that it is a VERY different text than the one I have loved since I was a small child. That book was much more poetic and fun, with every page ending, "What do YOU think happened then?" This one still has the delightful and fun artwork, and the enticing cutouts from page to page, but the text is grossly modified and simply not as good as the original edition. I was hoping to share this with 'next generations', thinking that I could "read along without reading" (I still remember whole pages-worth of the original book!).
If you are not familiar with the original, this is still a delightful and unique book... but if you are hoping for the same text as in the book published by Ernest Benn Ltd., you will be disappointed, as I am.
Favorite book over the years by my children and as a gift item - I have read it so many times, I still know it mostly by heart. But why did someone decide the delectable words needed to be changed. So many of the poetic, imaginative, rhythmic lines have been altered, not for the better, apparently to dumb down the charming imagery. So sad the last child I gifted this book to will never know its full charms. Thank goodness the drawings and conceptremain which still make it a memorable gift for a young child.
Scandinavian literature seems to have many dark themes. While the illustrations and characters in this book seem charming, there is a lot of darkness and there is only light at the end of the very tale. The main characters encounter many mean creatures and the pages are reminicent of a Halloween tale. I would not want to read this to young children, as it is rather scary. I will be looking for another Moomin book that is more cheerful.
I was surprised that this 2001 edition has standard weight pages on the inside, but the die-cut holes are still there - doors and windows hinting at the contents of the next pages. The first english edition from 1954 that I loved as a kid was a true "board book" with internal pages of thick card stock designed for heavy abuse from children. This 2001 edition also has a new translation by Sophie Hannah of the original Swedish text (earlier editions from 1953 and 1996 are "scarier").
This story is a joyfully creative book about Moomintrolls. They have mommys and daddys and drink milk, just like the rest of us, but they definitely have more adventures than the normal non-Moomintroll population. Tove Jansson wrote her books many years ago, but they are heroic and community-minded, caring and loving, with a world of fantastic escapades for today's children. The adventures in this particular title happen on each page through a hole in the page that begs us to be curious about the next page. Each page takes us further into the adventure of our hero on his way home with the can of milk he is bringing to his mother. He meets his friend Mymble along the way, and together they rescue Little My. All three arrive safely home at the end to a lovely Mama Moomin welcome.
I grew up with the original translation of this text, which was slightly dark, beautifully evocative, and suspenseful. My own children grew up with a well made (but not, sadly, die cut) color photocopy of that original (my older sister got the original). Imagine my joy at finding this beautifully reproduced die-cut re-printing (I thought) of this beloved book. Imagine my dismay at discovering that the translation had been altered and had lost much of its beauty. Now, I know, that translation is translation, and, given a new translator, one must expect a new text, but, since (at the time) I was unaware of the re-translation, I felt betrayed.

I will keep my photocopy and read it (hopefully) to my grandchildren before they can read for themselves, while they follow along in the beautifully die-cut and illustrated re-translation. When they get old enough to read for themselves, I will give them the copy and explain that, when you get older, sometimes, you have to choose between beautiful art and beautiful words. This will make them sad, I am sure, as it did me, but I suppose it will be a valuable lesson.

BTW, the same is true of the new printing of Who Will Comfort Toffle. Though, in that case, the words are much more important. I have managed to find a used copy (I hope) of the original translation of that, so, perhaps, my photocopy can be passed to my kids.
Huge fan of the Moomins and Tove Jansson. This picture book was "updated" from the previous one I had purchased my son 5 or 6 years ago. It was a read aloud favorite of his for a long time and so we wanted to share it with his younger cousins. The new translation is not nearly as charming and has lost its delightful rhythm and much of the wonderful rhyme pattern that made it such a hit. Very, very disappointed in this translation.