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Finn Family Moomintroll
by Tove Jansson
The Moomins find a magician's hat that changes whatever is put inside it, which is entertaining until somebody climbs in.
A story about magical creatures and families, gentle and strange in tone. We would put it with children of 7–11, and at a reading age of about 9 for reading alone.
Nothing flagged
We have not flagged any content in this one that a parent would usually want warning about.
Part of a series
This one belongs to the The Moomins series, so there is more to read if it goes down well — which is worth a great deal with a reluctant reader.
Our take on this book
Moomintroll and his friends find a magician's top hat that transforms whatever is put inside it — with unpredictable and sometimes alarming results — while the seasons turn in the Moominvalley and the mysterious Hobgoblin is abroad looking for a lost ruby. Tove Jansson's most beloved Moomin book is really a set of linked adventures, gentle and strange and wise, full of the small worries and great kindnesses that make these stories unlike anything else. The magic causes chaos but never real danger, and the whole thing is suffused with the Moomins' characteristic calm and warmth. For a child of nine to twelve — or younger, read aloud — it is a quietly enchanting classic, rewarding a reader who values atmosphere, oddity and character over fast plot. Jansson's own line drawings are part of the spell. It is a lovely, comforting, faintly philosophical book, and for many readers the perfect doorway into the whole Moomin world.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
The Wild RobotPeter Brown
Five Children and ItE. Nesbit
HeidiJohanna Spyri
Alice's Adventures in WonderlandLewis Carroll
Children of the QuicksandsEfua Traoré
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.