Summer in Mùmíng Valley

Author: Tove Jansson
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: Tove Jansson is one of the most popular fairy tale writers in the world. She received the Stockholm Best Children's Book Award (1952), the Jorma Lagomarsino Medal (named after the world's first woman Nobel Prize laureate in Literature) (1953), the Hans Christian Andersen International Children's Literature Award (1966), and the Order of the Légion d'Honneur (1976). In 1978, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Literature by the European Academy. In 1994, on the occasion of her 80th birthday, the world celebrated by calling on people to unite, as inspired by a line from her fairy tales, "Let us tie our tails together," in the effort to provide children with more and better children's literature. Tove Jansson, a world-renowned fantasy literature master and female painter, was born in 1914. Her Moomin series of stories takes readers into a magical world filled with sincerity, kindness, and beauty. The lively and adorable Moomins, who live in the forest and resemble upright miniature hippopotamuses, are plump and shy, and love the sunshine. They form a harmonious world with their forest environment. These stories by Jansson have now been adapted into animated films and are shown worldwide, making the Moomins familiar characters for children in many countries. For her significant contributions to world children's literature through her literary and artistic activities, Tove Jansson was awarded the International Hans Christian Andersen Children's Literature Award in 1966. Tove Jansson (1914-2001), born in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, was the daughter of a sculptor and a painter. In Finland, her family belonged to a minority ethnic group that spoke Swedish, and this background deeply influenced her personality—she had an artistic taste, was creative, and was tolerant. In her fairy tales, the protagonists are usually imaginative, unconventional, and somewhat romantic in their individualism. Her childhood was very happy. From May to September each year, her family would live in a cabin by the sea, enjoying a fairy-tale-like life. In The Magic Hat, you can certainly find traces of her beautiful childhood memories. The Moomin series, including the masterpiece The Magic Hat, has been published in China. The upcoming "Masterpieces of World Fantasy Literature Series—Tove Jansson," to be published tomorrow, includes the eight most important works from this series. It is worth mentioning that all the illustrations in these works were created by Jansson herself!