- in Children's
- review by Julia Rothman
- on October 24, 2007
- comments by 16 readers
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Who will Comfort Toffle? (a tale of Moomin Valley)
I went to the best little store this weekend in a second floor building in SoHo called Kiosk on suggestion from my friend Liz. It is pretty awesome. The owner Alisa Grifo takes a trip to a different foriegn country every four or five months and comes back with all kinds of interesting treasures to sell from board games to water kettles to handmade slippers. Anything with a cool unique design to it. These items are limited, it sort of feels like a gallery. But there is a small section of items that they sell ongoing. They sell them from their store but also online here. Right now they have items from Finland (speaking of Finland- yesterdays post too) and one of those items is this children’s book Who will Comfort Toffle?. How could anyone resist the bright beautiful illustrations in this book? Toffle is a little boy in Moomin Valley who is too lonely so he goes out into the world on an adventure to find a friend. He sees all different kinds of creatures and people but none talk to him. Then he finds a bottle with a note inside from a little lonely girl Miffle who is looking for a friend to rescue her from the Groke. So off Toffle goes to find and save Miffle. This book is the translated English version and the story is rhyming (Sophie Hannah created the rhyme for this version). The text is all handdrawn which is a nice touch, especially Toffle and Miffle’s names which are made a little more scripty and bolder. This book was first published in 1960 but remains one of Tove Jansson’s most popular. Tove Jansson is one of Scandinavia’s best known children’s book authors famous for her Moomin characters. Check out this Moomin site here. I love those wacky characters. Apparently there has been television series, a movie and a theme park all based around them. You can get a lot of the Moomin series easily here but this book is much harder to find. So thanks Kiosk for bringing it to us. If you’re in NY you should definitely check the store out.
sia wrote
I seriously <3 that book. I read it in Stockholm when I did an apartment switch with Emma from emmas designblogg… wonderful illustrations + story indeed.
October 24, 2007 9:34amnatalie wrote
toffle! not toggle.
truly heartbreakingly beautiful, and kiosk is a great great great store. they also make a zine of everything they sell from a given country, with all their writeups, which they sell for $10…
October 24, 2007 11:32amjulia wrote
whoops- that’s so funny- toggle- wrong key. thanks natalie.
October 24, 2007 11:38amsosser wrote
oh, i’ve been trying (in vain) to order this book at work! we love all things moomin – and tove jansson. the summer book is also lovely (tho moominless).
October 25, 2007 12:11amMiguel Tanco wrote
love the cover, pretty funny!
October 26, 2007 11:36ampeacay wrote
Thanks Julia, they’re beautiful. I remember first learning of Tove Jansson ages ago when I did a post on trolls and I heard she was internationally famous for the moomins. “The what?”, I said to myself.
October 26, 2007 1:49pmI must be old – I still haven’t come across the moomins or any other of her works out ‘there’ in real life. Wonderful colours and contrast.
Pip wrote
Ouch. This is so good it makes my stomach hurt. I’m amazed I haven’t seen it before.. its just SO great. Thanks so much for showing me -now begins the task of tracking it down!
October 30, 2007 6:14pmBoopy wrote
Is this the same (or roughly the same) version that can be found on amazon ?
October 31, 2007 2:39pmWhere can i buy it ?
julia wrote
Boopy- the link to Kiosk’s online store is above. You can purchase it there.
Amazon has other Moomin books but looks like they don’t have this particular one.
October 31, 2007 2:50pmJosephine wrote
I love Moomin! I watched the tv show in South Africa, when I was younger — it was a Japanese adaptation of the Finnish books, dubbed into Afrikaans.
November 1, 2007 1:16pmjoe snivel wrote
I too have been looking, no luck yet.
November 4, 2007 1:03pmI did just find 2 very rare Moomin plates on ebay, 1 I think is very rare and is the same as the cover on the book?
if someone knows where I can get this book
please post here.
thanks
julia wrote
Joe– as I mentioned in my above text and also in a comment- you can get this book HERE.
November 4, 2007 7:40pmellen Crimi-Trent wrote
I will have to check that store out when I go to NYC in Jan! Especially before the SCBWI confrence in February!
November 19, 2007 5:58pmleah wrote
this is my favourite book from childhood! i inherited the copy that my dad had when he was a little boy. one day i am going to get the last illustration tattoo’d on my arm :)
December 27, 2007 3:25amPingback: miffle & norbert « a life like clouds
Maiju wrote
If you really loved this book, I would highly recommend to get “The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My”! I think it’s even more wonderful than “Who will Comfort Toffle?”, cause it has holes and everything! :)
April 16, 2009 3:31pm