Premier’s Reading Challenge 2021-Comet in Moominland
The author of this book is Tove Jansson.
The main characters in this book are: Moomintroll, Moominmamma, Moominpappa, Sniff, Snufkin, Snork and Snork Maiden.
This book is about bravery, courage and doing what is right, even if what you get in return is a comet.
Comets are just like asteroids, they come from the sky looking like a tiny ball but later they will be looking bigger than the sun. That’s because they are just about to hit the earth.
Except sometimes they don’t hit the earth. From your point of view, it looks like that they are millimetres away from hitting the earth. But it’s actually metres away. So while they still have space, they dodge the earth and fling themselves back upwards into space again.That’s what happened in this book.
Did you know that when I was young I used to read other Moomin books for little kids. I read 3 of them. They were called “Moomin and the Little Ghost”, “Moomin and the Birthday Button” and “Moomin and the Ocean’s Song”.
While reading this ‘Comet’ book, I realised that Moomintroll found the characters Snork Maiden and Snufkin in this book while having their adventure. On the way to the lighthouse, they found Snufkin and on their way back to Moomin Valley they found Snork Maiden. Then the author used those characters in the other three little children’s books that I used to read.
A part that I thought was unique about this book is that at the start of every chapter, it would have a mini paragraph about what's happening in the chapter. For eg. beneath the title ‘Chapter 1’, it says:
which is about Moomintroll and Sniff following a mysterious path to the sea, pearl-fishing, the discovery of a cave and how the Muskrat avoided catching a cold.
This would go on for every chapter in the book.
Here is an interesting fact: Tove Jansson, the author, is from Finland (I have been there but don’t remember much!). I once took this book for show and tell in my Prep class and my teacher, Ms. Nicholson, said that in Japan they liked these books so much that they made a cafe with only Moomin characters! i would certainly love to go there one day!
