Moomin's Invisible Friend

Moomin Picture Books

by Tove Jansson

This book is adapted from a section of Tales from Moominvalley.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books

24 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 1993

About the author

Tove Jansson was born and died in Helsinki, Finland. As a Finnish citizen whose mother tongue was Swedish, she was part of the Swedish-speaking Finns minority. Thus, all her books were originally written in Swedish.

Although known first and foremost as an author, Tove Jansson considered her careers as author and painter to be of equal importance.

Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945), during World War II. She said later that the war had depressed her, and she had wanted to write something naive and innocent. Besides the Moomin novels and short stories, Tove Jansson also wrote and illustrated four original and highly popular picture books.

Jansson's Moomin books have been translated into 33 languages.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great picture story book. It doesn't have the quite the original style of drawings used for the moomins, I do love the original artwork and colour schemes, the orange and blue skies and yellow trees, these illustrations go for a more cartoon style with realistic colours, but are nice enough.

The storyline is good. Ninny is a little girl who was looked after by an Aunt who was so nasty that Ninny became invisible. When Ninny comes to live with the moomin family she gradually becomes herself by appearing bit by bit, first a bell around her neck and then some shoes

Ninny plays games and goes mushroom picking and enjoys a normal family life. My children loved this story when they were little but we did all wonder what would happen when Ninny goes back to the Aunt at the end of the story.

[Khalina Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how sophisticated the stories are. There lie always some deep meanings or life lessons in Tove Jansson's work. These stories are not only for children but also for adults to read and to reflect on their own personalities and experiences.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

About the Invisible Friend who becomes visible because someone actually SEES her. Beautiful, poetic.

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure we get the love of Moomin yet, but I did note how this story aptly illustrates the idea that healing from trauma happens within relationships.