Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson was a reputed novelist, illustrator, painter, visual artist, comic strip writer, and author from Finland, who used to speak and write in Swedish. She was particularly popular for her children's book series called the Moomin series, which were initially written in Finnish and Swedish and later translated for the English readers. Jansson had started this widely successful series in 1945 and published its last book in 1970.

The best place to start is the Mumintrollen series, the earliest of Tove Jansson's multi-book series: it opens with The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945) and runs to 11 books across 1945–2009, ending with The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My (2009). Tove Jansson's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Tove Jansson has 79 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1945 and 2026. 63 of them belong to 2 named series — the largest being the Moomin series with 52 books — and 16 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Tove Jansson's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Mumintrollen (1945–2009, 11 books) and Moomin (1960–2026, 52 books).

This guide splits Tove Jansson's 79 books into 2 named series and 16 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Moomin (52 books, 1960–2026); Mumintrollen (11 books, 1945–2009).