Tove Jansson's Moomin characters and books are admired the world over. In the United States the series beginning with "Finn Family Moomintroll "(fi...
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Oct 28, 2007
Katie
rated it: 
A tender ode to the aura of autumn – drenched in reflective anticipations of the approaching hibernation and speckled with mysterious promises for new beginnings. Clever and wise.
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Dec 10, 2008
Zack
rated it:
Possibly the most melancholy children's book ever written. While the Moomin stories all have a slightly unnerving, mysterious quality, but this one is outright existential.
The idea is simple: What if there was a children's book where the main characters never showed up? Various supporting players from the other Moomin books converge on the Moomins' house, but they're just not there. Normally, this would lead to a quest story to find the family, but in his case, the Moomins are jus More...
The idea is simple: What if there was a children's book where the main characters never showed up? Various supporting players from the other Moomin books converge on the Moomins' house, but they're just not there. Normally, this would lead to a quest story to find the family, but in his case, the Moomins are jus More...
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Nov 29, 2010
Jennifer
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I'm puzzled by all the reviews calling this book "depressing" and "bleak." I could concede "bleak," perhaps, in that the book is stark and unforgiving, just like the November landscape, and the psychological pain of the characters. Tove Jansson deals fearlessly and compassionately with the moods and mindsets that trouble us most. She is brave and truthful enough to present us, not with pat answers and fix-its, but with the rather radical idea that people do not n
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Jul 22, 2011
Alex
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This is the first Tove Jansson book I have read, which is kind of ironic, since it's one of the last books she wrote. But I loved it. It was enchanting and it felt nice to read it. The way the characters live with eachother in that big empty house, all of them brought together with the thought of visiting the Moomin family, it's neat and pleasant. Even though it's still summer, this book just makes me want to put on a sweater, make some tea and decorate a Christmas tree. While they were all in t
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Sep 08, 2009
nicole
rated it: 
"The quiet transition from autumn to winter is not a bad time at all. It's a time for protecting and securing things and for making sure you've got in as many supplies as you can. It's nice to gather together everything you possess as close to you as possible, to store up your warmth and your thoughts and burrow yourself into a deep hole inside, a core of safety where you can defend what is important and precious and your very own. Then the cold and the storms and the darkness can do their
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Jul 26, 2009
Greg
rated it:
If you like your children books to be depressing and bleak you couldn't do much better than Moominvalley in November. Edward Tulane, might have had it's moments of despair, and had an overarching sadness to it, but next to this novel it's pretty fucking upbeat.
If Ingmar Bergman ever directed a children's movie it would probably be like this. Six depressed and solitary people separately decide to visit this one family that has always made them feel like life is worth living. Inst More...
If Ingmar Bergman ever directed a children's movie it would probably be like this. Six depressed and solitary people separately decide to visit this one family that has always made them feel like life is worth living. Inst More...
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Apr 26, 2008
BunWat
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The Moominfamily have gone away. No one knows where they are. Several people come to their house hoping for one reason or another to find them and some of them stay for quite awhile, sleeping in their beds and forming an odd waiting society but eventually for one reason and another most of them go away again. A strange autumnal book full of a kind of satisfying emptiness that feels somehow Novemberish.
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Aug 18, 2010
Tyas
rated it:
Out of all Moomin books that I have read so far, perhaps this is the one I love the most. The tone is slightly different - this book is rather dark and gloomy, set in November where creatures like the Moomins have started their hibernation.
Drawn by their memories of the warmth and friendliness of the Moomin family, several loners and lonely figures made their journey back to the family's house - but the loved ones were nowhere to be found. So these characters had to struggle to know More...
Drawn by their memories of the warmth and friendliness of the Moomin family, several loners and lonely figures made their journey back to the family's house - but the loved ones were nowhere to be found. So these characters had to struggle to know More...
Dec 30, 2011
bistra
rated it:
О, толкова прекрасна книжка за времето, когато есента си отива на пръсти и внезапно ти се приисква да се увиеш в пашкул! Муминското семейство отсъства, но в къщата им внезапно се появяват гости, които нямат друг избор освен да се опитат да си прекарат добре (заедно). Най-мила ми бе Филифьонката и още дълго ще помня главата с чистенето, трета поред :-)
Туве е толкова нежна и светла душа, прекрасен писател, обичам я от сърце! (Да пишеш за деца е същото като да пишеш за възрастни, беше More...
Туве е толкова нежна и светла душа, прекрасен писател, обичам я от сърце! (Да пишеш за деца е същото като да пишеш за възрастни, беше More...
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Apr 11, 2011
Jenny
rated it:
This is the last book of the Moomin-series. It was also the last book Tove Jansson wrote that was directed towards children because when she had written it, she read it and realized she wasnt writing for children anymore.
It is a book where Tove Jansson metaphorically takes back her valley and trolls from the readers. As it was, Jansson thought that the Moomin-world had become too huge for her, she couldnt control it anymore. It had broken free and started to live its own life so she More...
It is a book where Tove Jansson metaphorically takes back her valley and trolls from the readers. As it was, Jansson thought that the Moomin-world had become too huge for her, she couldnt control it anymore. It had broken free and started to live its own life so she More...
Apr 26, 2010
Janelle
rated it: 
The Moomin books came up during a book group discussion earlier this year. I'd never heard of them before. They are by Finnish writer Tove Jansson, who wrote them in Swedish. My friend Sharon lent me this book, which is the last in the series.
I love how dreamy and (to borrow a word from the back cover) "atmospheric" these books are. Jansson paints a setting that is both very real and other-worldly. The characters aren't human, but they are human-like. The line drawing More...
I love how dreamy and (to borrow a word from the back cover) "atmospheric" these books are. Jansson paints a setting that is both very real and other-worldly. The characters aren't human, but they are human-like. The line drawing More...
Mar 07, 2011
William
rated it:
This is probably my favorite of the Moomin books and it is definitely the darkest and most introspective.
The small orphan Toft, the loud and organizing Hemulen, the worrying Fillyjonk, the cranky Grandpa-Grumble, the Mymble and Snufkin all converge on the Moomin's house, seeking the comfort and warmth of the Moomin family only to find it desrted and the family gone.
As autumn sinks into winter the characters sink into themselves, lost and worried until finally, they find a wa More...
The small orphan Toft, the loud and organizing Hemulen, the worrying Fillyjonk, the cranky Grandpa-Grumble, the Mymble and Snufkin all converge on the Moomin's house, seeking the comfort and warmth of the Moomin family only to find it desrted and the family gone.
As autumn sinks into winter the characters sink into themselves, lost and worried until finally, they find a wa More...
Jan 04, 2011
Laura
rated it:
Ennemmin 3- tai jopa 2½, en osaa vielä päättää. Pyöristyy kuitenkin kolmoseen, joten antaapa nyt olla sen sitten.
Muumilaakson marraskuu on viimeinen Tove Janssonin kirjoittamista Muumi-romaaneista ja se lopettikin "sarjan" hienosti, kaihoisasti. Minulle tämä kirja ei kuitenkaan ollut viimeinen muumini, onneksi ei vielä!
Verrattuna aikaisemmin lukemiini Muumeihin, Muumilaakson marraskuu oli pettymys. Kirjoitustyyli tuntui liian erilaiselta, runollisemmalta. Tapahtumia More...
Muumilaakson marraskuu on viimeinen Tove Janssonin kirjoittamista Muumi-romaaneista ja se lopettikin "sarjan" hienosti, kaihoisasti. Minulle tämä kirja ei kuitenkaan ollut viimeinen muumini, onneksi ei vielä!
Verrattuna aikaisemmin lukemiini Muumeihin, Muumilaakson marraskuu oli pettymys. Kirjoitustyyli tuntui liian erilaiselta, runollisemmalta. Tapahtumia More...
Nov 19, 2008
Robert
rated it:
Tove Jansson, Moominvalley in November (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1971)
Jansson's last Moominvalley book concerns itself not with the Moomins themselves, but with some of the ancillary characters from the series. In this one, it's November, and the Moomins have gone off somewhere for the winter. Seven of the valley's denizens-- among them Snufkin and the Fillyjonk-- decide to drop in and see what the Moomins are doing. Instead of finding the Moomins, they find one another, and hijin More...
Jansson's last Moominvalley book concerns itself not with the Moomins themselves, but with some of the ancillary characters from the series. In this one, it's November, and the Moomins have gone off somewhere for the winter. Seven of the valley's denizens-- among them Snufkin and the Fillyjonk-- decide to drop in and see what the Moomins are doing. Instead of finding the Moomins, they find one another, and hijin More...
Dec 10, 2011
Bookmaniac70
rated it:
Прекрасна, както всички книжки от муминската серия. Този път муминското семейство отсъства, но затова пък къщата им се превръща в място за среща на няколко неспокойни души.:-))Атмосферата на отиващата си есен и настъпващата зима е неповторима!
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Dec 21, 2010
Christiane
rated it: 
I'm really lukewarm on this series, unlike apparently everyone else in the world (this reissue has glowing praise from Neil Gaiman, Jeff Smith, Horn Books, and Sir Terry Pratchett among others). This book was every slow, very melancholy, and very odd...I rather liked it as an adult but I'm not sure I would have liked it as a child, and it's hard to think that many modern day kids will find this particular book in the series very appealing.
Aug 02, 2010
Marjorie
rated it:
My first Moomin book and no Moomins are in it! My friend Duscha Scott was shocked to learn nearly 30 years ago that I'd never read and books about the Moomins, a series written by Tove Jansson. I hope that somehow she knows that I've embarked on Moomin marathon. Like the Pooh books, they appeal in different ways to Dults and children. And I suspect that one's relationship with the Moomins deepens with every book.
Dec 17, 2008
PS The friend I sent this to reported, "Fillyjonk reminds me of the biblical Martha--OK, a highly quirky version!"
As a child I was puzzled by the weirdness of the Moomin books, but as an adult I find them pleasurably surrealistic. This one features six creatures staying at the Moomin house while the family is away, plus The Ancestor, who is hibernating in the stove with a tummy full of spruce needles. Jansson’s psychological insights are acute and sometimes I found myself r More...
As a child I was puzzled by the weirdness of the Moomin books, but as an adult I find them pleasurably surrealistic. This one features six creatures staying at the Moomin house while the family is away, plus The Ancestor, who is hibernating in the stove with a tummy full of spruce needles. Jansson’s psychological insights are acute and sometimes I found myself r More...
Sep 28, 2011
Amanda Lueck
rated it:
Again, a very adult Moomin book. All of the action occurs while the Moomins are away on Moominpappa's quest, and the characters left behind begin to create their own little family to satisfy strange and varied needs. A study in personality and the subconscious, almost. A very nice way to end the series, though.
Sep 24, 2011
Valmuer
rated it:
Det fineste på hyllen min. Leses helst om høsten, i november, desember, hele året.
Mummifamilien har dratt til havet og etterlater seg en tom Mummidal. Hit til Mummidalen kommer så små knøtt og andre for å søke Familiens varme, men istedenfor finner de varme i hverandre.
Mummifamilien har dratt til havet og etterlater seg en tom Mummidal. Hit til Mummidalen kommer så små knøtt og andre for å søke Familiens varme, men istedenfor finner de varme i hverandre.
Feb 21, 2011
Moem
rated it:
I loved this book. It's strange and different amongst the Moomin books because of the absence of the actuall Moomin family, but, having read the other books, I knew where they were.
Janssons style is poetic and loving as always. Each character ends up getting what s/he really needs.
Janssons style is poetic and loving as always. Each character ends up getting what s/he really needs.
Nov 19, 2010
Owen
rated it:
Really amazing. In this episode, Jansson created a spookily accurate allegory of the characteristic symptoms of November melancholy and depressed people in general, but she maintained the quirky and playful essence of the other Moomin books. Worth a read this time of year or any time you feel like you're on the edge of insanity.
Mar 31, 2009
Alan
rated it:
A magical story.
I loved the little characters with all their fears and doubts: the Hemulen who gives orders and talks about sailing but hides his fears; the OCD Fillyjonk; cool Snufkin and strange little Toft. Toft was my favourite in this story.
I loved the little characters with all their fears and doubts: the Hemulen who gives orders and talks about sailing but hides his fears; the OCD Fillyjonk; cool Snufkin and strange little Toft. Toft was my favourite in this story.
Oct 28, 2011
Andrew
rated it:
Wonderful book. Even though Moomibooks are written for children the books offer wider philosophical considerations and observations about human nature and what kind of different outlooks people can have. Definitely worth reading.
Aug 05, 2011
Julia
rated it:
Wenn ich Tove Janssons Mumin-Bücher lese (auch wenn hier in gewisser Weise gar keine Mumins vorkommen), ist das wie das nach Hause kommen in eine warme Stube der Geborgenheit. Ich kann das Zuhause riechen, ich höre das liebevoll frisch bezogene Bettzeug rascheln und für eine kleine Weile bin ich mir sicher, dass alles gut wird.
Dec 02, 2009
Holly
rated it:
Not my favorite Moominvalley book. I missed the moomintrolls and had to slog through all the whining by the characters waiting for them to return home. If snufkin hadn't been there, we never would have finished it.
Nov 05, 2010
Jessica
rated it:
I finished it and started right back at the beginning. She is just so good at characterization, plus reading this book is the only thing that has made me feel fall-like this year.
Oct 20, 2011
kill me baby
rated it:
this was a great book!!!!
but 1st,you need to read the 1st and 7th book to read this.
the others, you don't NEED to read.
But I recommend it!
but 1st,you need to read the 1st and 7th book to read this.
the others, you don't NEED to read.
But I recommend it!
Jan 03, 2011
Dirk
rated it:
The last and darkest of the ten Moomin novels. A touching treatment of quirkiness, absence, and isolation. Some stimulating accounts of the creative process.
Jul 08, 2009
Shawna
rated it:
I love all the Moomin books but this was always my favorite. A great message about friendship and enjoying the world around us.
