Name: Moomin 80th anniversary books, pop-up magic, special editions and more
Uploaded: 2026-01-26T03:22:46.000Z
Duration: 12 min 4 s
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In 1945, in the shadow of War, a young artist in Finland drew a long snouted creature in the corner of her notebook.

Then she gave it a family, a valley and a home.

For 80 years, Tove Janssen's gentle, big hearted trolls have offered readers of every age a cosy place that values friendship and nature.

They're beloved enough to have inspired theme parks, music, plays, TV adaptations, cafes and a museum, not to mention lots of collectible memorabilia.

But in this video we're going to focus on the books.

Details and links to everything I mention are included in the description box below.

With 2025 being the 80th anniversary of the first Moomin Tale, it's a great time to pick up some beautiful celebration additions.

The book that started it all in 1945, the Moomins in the Great Flood has been reimagined in a beautiful anniversary edition that includes Tove's original sepia toned illustrations and for the first time her complete character descriptions of the residents of Moominvalley.

In the story, Moomin Troll and Moominmamma are searching for Moominpapa and for somewhere safe to live after a terrible flood.

Tova wrote this first Moomin tale during the Second World War at a time when bombs were falling over Helsinki.

She later said she wrote it partly to comfort herself during those dark years when painting felt impossible and the world seemed to be coming apart.

It's a shorter, slightly more fairytale like story than the later Moomin novels, full of eerie forests, strange creatures and the first glimmers of the cosy, chaotic Moomin house life that readers love read today.

Its themes of displacement, shelter and rebuilding after catastrophe feel surprisingly contemporary, making this anniversary edition both a fascinating piece of Moomin history and a moving introduction to Moomin Valley.

I didn't realize it when I bought my copy, but

this anniversary edition is supposed to come with a fold out poster that you can cut out to build an adorable Moomin house, so if you're buying it, definitely make sure yours includes it.

The Moomins Find a Home is a pop up retelling of the tale of the Moomins and the Great Flood in a more compact way.

Mimintroll and Miminmamma are still searching for Miminpapa and they're trying to find some way to curl up safely before winter.

The intricate die cut scenes and illustrations are by Elena Selena, a Lithuanian born graphic artist and paper artist.

Each spread uses a different colour palette and different pop up mechanisms as well.

It's one of those ostensibly for the children but actually for my coffee table type of books.

Another fun paper engineering Anniversary Edition just released is A Year in the Moomin House and this is a carousel book that features pop up scenes from the Moomin House throughout the seasons.

You can then tie the house off with a ribbon to make a 360 degree display.

Now a couple of these anniversary editions are already out in the UK but may be published later in the us, but

I'm including links to both in the box below.

The World of Mimin Valley was first published in 2017 and that's the edition I'm showing here with this pale blue die cut cover.

It's a fabulous encyclopedia with character biographies and maps and essays and behind the scenes material on Tova and the new 2025 anniversary edition has a dark blue gilded cover and the contents have been expanded to over 400 pages with new chapters covering the comic strips and the Moomin canon.

It's a really thoughtful production with illustrations, posters, a detailed biography and it's just laid out so beautifully with white space and illustrations throughout.

Tove wrote nine original Moomin novels, starting with the Moomins in the great flood in 1945, which was followed by Comet in Moomin land in 1946 and ended with Moomin Valley in November in 1970.

The pretty collector's editions I'm showing here are absolutely delightful.

They're perfectly sized for little hands, they've got the original cover designs and restored layouts from the 1950s and 60s, and

There's no hard and fast reading order, but

the characters do age throughout the series and a couple of the events are linked.

The Moomins in the Great Flood introduces the family in their journey to Moomin Valley.

Comet in Moominland introduces some more characters.

Finn Family Moomin Troll was the third novel chronologically, but the first to be translated into English, and

so was for many, their first introduction, Introduction to the World.

The rest of the novels catalogue different adventures, but

I'd suggest reading Moominvalley in November last it's set contemporaneously with Moominpapa at sea, but

Tove wrote this final novel shortly after her mother died, and

the story has a sense of a wistful farewell.

The UK editions were all released across 20172018 and the US just started publishing them this year with the first two out already and a couple more scheduled for 2026.

If you're looking for a special copy for your shelves, then the Folio Society's edition of the best known story Fin Family Moomintroll is what I'd recommend.

It's bound in textured paper and the decorative slip case is so pretty.

It includes Tove's original illustrations both in black and white, plus several that have been newly colourised.

It even has a removable poster of the Moomin family slipped into a pouch at the end of the book.

Now, if you're looking for this title second hand, be aware there is also an earlier Folio Society edition published in 2007 without the colour illustrations and poster.

There's also an 80th anniversary edition of Comet in Moomiland just released, although it won't make it to Australia until February, so I'm using screenshots here.

If you didn't know, the version of Comet in Moominland typically available in English is a translation of Tove's original original publication of 1946.

However, she later revised the book to reflect a more Nordic setting, replacing some characters, there's a new kitten, and

making other changes like adding a new lullaby.

This 80th anniversary edition includes the text of this definitive 1968 edition, newly available in English.

As well as her novels, Toveau also penned four picture books and authored a long running comic strip.

The Moomins debuted to their biggest audience when the comic strip appeared in the London Evening News in 1954 and it was syndicated to 40 countries around the world.

Tover drew six strips a week from 1954 to 1959, producing 21 long Moomin comic stories.

The 10 volumes in this complete collection of the comics are quarter bound in cloth and each runs to about 100 pages long.

The first five volumes are authored by Tove, but

eventually she felt the constant deadlines left her no time or energy for writing novels or painting, which she increasingly wanted to focus on.

However, when she said she wanted to stop the syndicate still wanted to continue the strip.

She wanted to protect her characters from strangers and so she proposed that her younger brother Lars, who'd already been helping out with the scripts, take over.

He taught himself to draw in her style and continued the strip until the mid-1970s, which is why the second half of the books in this series are authored by him.

As long time watchers of this channel may know, I collect books that have removable letters.

I'll drop a link below to the online guide I made for other collectors of these types of books, and

Moomin Mail is one of the most delightful.

It contains letters and postcards and recipes and even origami games.

SAM 2025 also debuted some cute Lift the Flap books for young children that are shaped like different buildings that allow you to open every drawer and cupboard to peek inside.

So far we've been given a look inside the Moomin House Lighthouse and Observatory with a new theater shaped one due out in 20.

Now I always publish an accompanying article for my videos which has additional information and titles that didn't make it into the film.

So if you'd like to read more about other collector's editions, a cookbook, more pop ups, and

an exhaustive guide to all the Moomin ephemera, a link to the full article is also in the video box below.

I'd love you to share in the comments which books are your favourite and if you could spend one day anywhere in Moomin Valley, where would that be?

For me, the Moomin House represents warmth, welcome and a place where there's always room for one more guest.