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Secrecy and Weirdness: Tove Jansson’s Moomin

moomin_illustration
‘The Moomins and the Great Flood’ (1945)


The secret places in children’s books don’t just make children feel special; they make them feel recognized as people, layered and large and complex enough to hold something hidden inside. Perhaps, too, they represent a part of the self that is drawn to strangeness and ambiguity, to unnameable emotions and unrealistic goals, but can be lost as we grow to understand the world better; a part we forget when we have to grow up.”

Tove Jansson, making clay models of her Moomins
Tove Jansson, making clay models of her Moomins

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