The Exploits of Moominpappa
'I decided to run away. There simply wasn't anything else to do.'
Here at last is Moominpappa's promised life story - from the days when he was abandoned in a newspaper parcel on the doorstep of a Moomin orphanage, to when he ran away to see the world and was lucky enough to meet Moominmamma.
Tove Jansson
Tove Jansson didn’t just imagine a world—she built one out of mist, melancholy, and moonlight. From the quiet valleys of Finland, she gave life to the Moomins, a whimsical family of creatures whose gentle adventures have spoken to generations about joy, solitude, and the beauty of being different. But to see her merely as the creator of beloved children’s books is to overlook the vast emotional and artistic landscape she traversed.
Born in Helsinki in 1914 into a family of artists—her father a sculptor, her mother an illustrator—Jansson’s creative world was shaped early by both structure and rebellion. As a young woman, she studied art in Stockholm, Helsinki, and Paris, yet always moved restlessly between painting, writing, and illustration, refusing to be pinned down. That freedom pulses through her books, where philosophical questions drift beneath the surface of fairytale-like prose, and where even the smallest creature might harbor a secret sorrow or sudden spark of courage.
The Moomin Books
The Moomin Books consists of eight books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.