Although I came across the moomins as a child and read a couple of the books, this first in the series, in a recent English translation, was new to me. This presents the moomintroll world in a prototype form. The illustrations show them as less well rounded than their familiar later incarnations, and the Sniff character joins them for the first time but is unnamed, and is just 'the little animal' or similar throughout. There is also a nice dryad type character who bows out before the strory ends, and who I have not encountered in the others I've read. However, some of the background is sketched in, with mentions in passing of some of the weird characters that populate moomintroll world: Hemulens and Snufkins for example.

Where the book has weaknesses, they are in both characterisation and plot. Moomintroll and his mother are on a sometimes perilous quest, but their motive changes. They start off looking for somewhere to make a warm home to hibernate over winter, but along they way their journey turns into a search for Moominpapa who went off with the Hattenfatteners, another strange creature I'd previously encountered in other tales. He seems to have left their original home, behind the stove in a human home, for no really defined reason other than wanderlust.

The other problem is that the flood of the title is a bit of a damp squib when it finally happens. However, the illustrations which include sepia paintings as well as the usual line drawings make up for that, and the production of the editon by 'Sort ofBooks' is very nicely done, so overall I'm rating this at 4 stars. ( )

Like others have said, not the greatest Moomins thing but an enjoyable enough kids fantasy adventure thing. Moominmama is great and the illustrations are charming as ever ( )

Delightfully odd children's story. Just dark enough to be engaging. I don't normally like things this random but it rides that fine line between absurd and compelling. ( )

Such a sweet little book! I love the Moomins and Tove's stories. I decided to start reading them again because I need something light hearted right now. Love Moomintroll and cannot wait to reread the other books too. ( )

Been trying to get my hands on this one for ages. it is exactly as good as I'd hoped, which is *very* good. ( )