Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Children's Fantasy - Moomins & Wolves

When I first started buying books as a student at University, I had very little spare cash with which to do so. Somehow I managed to buy a few paperbacks a week from my meagre allowance. Children's books were the cheapest - you could get 4 books for $2.00 - and in many cases were more interesting, story wise. Naturally I was drawn to the more fantastic books in the range.

Tove Jansson's Moomin books were of course among those I purchased.

Here's a selection of covers of the Puffin books editions, with cover art by Tove Jansson.

jansson_moomins2 jansson_moomins1jansson_moomins3
jansson_moomins4 jansson_moomins5


Another children's book author whose books I keenly looked forward to right up to her death in 2004, was Joan Aiken. Her alternate history series which began with Wolves of Willoughby Chase were a particular favourite, though all her children's adventure stories are first class. She was a wonderful writer, her stories being marvellously eccentric.

I am missing the second book, Black Hearts in Battersea, in the "Wolves" sequence but I have all the rest. The Puffin books editions are all illustrated by Pat Marriott as are the Red Fox editions.

aiken_wolves aiken_nantucket
aiken_mountain aiken_lake
aiken_limbo aiken_cuckootree
aiken_dido aiken_is

Cold Shoulder Road has cover art by none other than Edward Gorey.

aiken_coldshoulder
The last two books in series (alas) are Midwinter Nightingale and The Witch of Clatteringshaws are both US editions, published by Dell and Delacorte Press.

aiken_nightingale aiken_witch

Next - Lloyd Alexander and Susan Cooper