Product Description

Who Will Comfort Toffle? A tale of Moomin Valley sees Toffle driven from his home by the frightening noises of the forest. Too shy, at first, to approach the many colourful Moomin characters he passes along the way, he gains confidence by discovering a scared and lonely Miffle who needs his help. Toffle's quest to save Miffle from the dreadful Groke is an inspiring tale that every child (and many adults) are sure to identify with.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32378 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

Review
"In a children's book there must be a path where the author stands still and the child walks on. A threat or a wonder that is never explained. A face that never shows itself entire." (Tove Jansson)

About the Author
The writer and artist Tove Jansson (1914-2001) is a Scandinavian national treasure: she has a museum dedicated to her work in her native Finland, and the Moomin characters adorn everything from mugs to schoolbags. Elsewhere, Moomin stories have been published in 35 languages.

Customer Reviews

The perfect book to read out loud to a child!
Tove Jansson's Moomin books are usually something of a guilty secret for adults and so it is nice to see this gorgeous, colourful picture book that really is intended for children (rather than Midwinter or At Sea which have very strong adult resonances). But is still quite a guilty pleasure for adults.

It is quite a surprise but a pleasant one to see Jansson's delicate, detailed and very unique line drawings embalzoned with colour although sometimes it is used very sparingly in predominately monochromatic scenes.

Sophie Hannah's translation is witty, warm and poetic enough to really pull out Jansson's own idiosynchratic voice and the story is told well. And the story itself? It is a gentle tale of a young Toffle who goes out into the world and... well, that would be telling.

In my mind, this is by one of the best books that an adult could read out loud to child. Magical, warm and very human and touching.

A beautiful, addictive book
Got the words of 'The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My' (the Tove Jansson book published by Sort of Books in 2001) burned into your brain? We have, as a result of repeated readings over the last couple of years to our children (boys aged 6 and 4 and a girl aged 2). Now 'Who Will Comfort Toffle?' looks set to gain the same status. And who can complain? Wonderful translation. Illustrations even more beautiful than in 'Moomin, Mymble'. And a lovely gentle message. One word of warning: Your children will be insisting on finding rose bushes to attach letters to!

Top Toffle
For a Swedish kid like myself, this book brings back lots of childhood memories, since Tove Jansson is a Finnish author writing in Swedish. Those already familiar with the Moomin Valley of Jansson's imagination will feel at home with Toffle. The same fairy-tale creatures pop up in this book, all vividly brought to life by the illustrations. The Toffle of the title is a timid little character, scared by just about everything - until he find someone who is even smaller and more scared than himself, someone he can actually help. The story is exciting, but I don't remember being scared by it as a kid - it's definitely less frightening than Harry Potter! I really recommend you to read this to your kids: it's a beautiful, humorous classic in the vein of Astrid Lindgren or Winnie the Pooh.