The Moomintroll is on his way home to his mother but runs into trouble. Little My has disappeared, and Hemulen, who thinks it's Christmas, sucks up everything that comes his way in the vacuum cleaner's big horrible funnel.
Once upon a time, there were strange little creatures, somewhere between trolls and hippos, that inhabited a quiet green valley in Finland. The Moomins, created by the writer Tove Jansson, remain in the hearts of people the world over as an ode to family and childhood.
Tove Marika Jansson was a Swedish-speaking Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. For her contribution as a children's writer she received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1966. Brought up by artistic parents, Jansson studied art from 1930 to 1938 in Stockholm, Helsinki and then Paris. Her first solo art exhibition was in 1943. At the same time, she was writing short stories and articles for publication, as well as creating the graphics for book covers and other purposes. She continued to work as an artist for the rest of her life, alongside her writing. Jansson is best known as the author of the Moomin books for children. The first such book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, appeared in 1945, though it was the next two books, Comet in Moominland and Finn Family Moomintroll, published in 1946 and 1948 respectively, that brought her fame. Starting with the semi-autobiographical Bildhuggarens dotter (Sculptor's Daughter) in 1968, she wrote six novels and five books of short stories for adults.