BBC’s 100 Greatest Children’s Books of All Time Includes Classic Moomin Novels and Works by Astrid Lindgren and Ilon Wikland
30 May 2023
BBC’s 100 Greatest Children’s Books of All Time Includes Classic Moomin Novels and Works by Astrid Lindgren and Ilon Wikland
On the 23rd of May, BBC Culture published an impressive list of 100 greatest children’s books of all time, and it reveals to include five classic Moomin novels, and three beloved works by author Astrid Lindgren and illustrator Ilon Wikland.
The following works by author and illustrator Tove Jansson were included, according to their place on the list:
23 Moominland Midwinter (Tove Jansson, 1957)
59 Comet in Moominland (Tove Jansson, 1946)
60 Finn Family Moomintroll (Tove Jansson, 1948)
84 The Moomins and the Great Flood (Tove Jansson, 1945)
87 Moominvalley in November (Tove Jansson, 1970)
The BBC also asked six authors from the list to tell about the stories they loved reading when they were kids, and the video includes Philip Pullman talking about his love of Tove’s books. The author states:
“The books I liked when I was a child, the place of honour has to go to Tove Jansson’s books about the Moomins. … I loved them all, and I still do. It’s a complete world she’s invented with Moomins who are not human, but recognizably human in many ways. And I thought that it was a very lovely place to be. I would like to live with the Moomins, I thought then.”
Three classics by Astrid Lindgren and Ilon Wikland were also included, placed in following:
27 The Brothers Lionheart (Astrid Lindgren, 1973)
47 Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter (Astrid Lindgren, 1981)
65 Karlsson on the Roof (Astrid Lindgren, 1955)
This project conducted by the BBC is one of their major polls to recognize different cultural art forms. They wanted to list particularly the most influential literary works from children’s literature.
The article states that this was a vast project within the international literary community: “In total, 1050 different books were voted for by 177 experts – critics, authors and publishing figures – who came from 56 countries, from Austria to Uzbekistan. Of these voters, 133 were female, 41 were male and three preferred not to say. Each voter listed their 10 greatest children’s books, which we scored and ranked to produce the top 100… .”
This shows the timeless significance of Moomin stories as well as the work of Astrid Lindgren and Ilon Wikland in a broad scale.
The Moomins and the Great Flood was the very first book to introduce the Moomins, and the story depicts the Moomin family embarking on a journey to find a new home while also looking for the missing Moominpappa. They end up in the serene Moominvalley with their new home built by Moominpappa.
This was directly followed by the novels Comet in Moominland and Finn Family Moomintroll, which introduced readers to more of the beloved characters from Moominvalley. These novels also depict some of their first classic adventures that show more of the uniquely beautiful and magical world of the Moomins and their friends.
Moominland Midwinter is the sixth novel and one of the most influential as it showed a new approach by Jansson, where her narrative asserts that children could cope with the full scale of emotions, including moments of loneliness and isolation.
Moominvalley in November is the last, and perhaps most melancholic, novel in the series as it depicts the Moomin family as absent and the other characters waiting for their return. The story becomes a farewell to the Moomins as known in their original adventures, showing that all things come to an end.
You can read BBC’s article and the list of works on their website. You can also watch the whole video with the authors here.
