I got this UK-edition softcover from an online seller. I've enjoyed a number of the Moomintroll books, though I came to them fairly late in life - not sure how I'd have felt about them when I was a kid. Among my favorites: the very moody Moominland Midwinter. (Have also enjoyed some of Jansson's non-Moomin works, as in A Winter Book.)

This one's another of Jansson's wildly moody ostensibly-for-children fables; here, the restless Moominpappa gets his family to join him on a voyage to “his” lighthouse on a remote island (neither of which any of the family has heard of before?) – while the icy-death-causing Groke forms an ice floe on which to follow the lamp that the Moomins have placed high on their boat’s mast… There are lovely dreamlike sequences, such as young Moomintroll trying to befriend a lovely seahorse, and some harsh-reality ones, such as Little My's practical-but-grim method of getting the ants out of Moomintroll's beloved private glade. And the adults... well, both parents seem to be having their own versions of midlife crisis, with even the most-sensible-of-all Moominmamma spending some time hiding inside the painting of a garden that she made on the lighthouse wall.

Interestingly, Moomintroll eventually makes a kind of peace with the Groke, whose situation evokes some sympathy. But when storms rage across the island, will the family decide to stay - or head back to their beloved Moominvalley?

[There's a TV Tropes page on the Moomin books, with some entertaining tidbits.]

I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

** Released for the 2023 4 Elements challenge. **