The Summer Book by Tove Jansson REVIEW

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

4.14 out of 5 Stars

** Originally posted on The Broke Wanderlusty Reader **

The Summer Book is a collection of vignettes that provide a look into the life of Sophia, a small child, and her Grandmother who live on a Finnish island. It was, undoubtedly, one of the most heartwarming things I have ever read. Sophia is a little bit of a bratty child, but not in an obnoxious way. More like in a child-that's-learning-the-world kind of way. Nothing bad, but a part of her age. And the Grandmother is a bit tired, but there are glimpses of a really strong spirit within her that are great when they come to the surface. 

The dynamic between these two was just so, so sweet. They really just purely love and care about each other that I didn't even care there wasn't a main plotline because it was all about them and their love and that was perfect. 

I think my favorite short story was Playing Venice, where Sophia receives a postcard from Venice in the mail and the next handful of days are filled with her and Grandmother recreating their own Venice out in the forest. When a storm comes through and drowns it all, Sophia freaks out and Grandmother goes out for her to find Venice and save it. Of course, she can't find any of it. But then to calm Sophia down, she recreates the main structure where the Venetian mother lived (Sophia's own is dead) before Sophia wakes up. Sophia can't tell the difference when she wakes up and is so happy that Grandmother had "saved" it. 

The stories do a fantastic job of describing the setting as well. Holy cow, I want to see the forests, the islands, the Gulf of Finland, the Three-Country Cairn and then just generally a lot more of any wilderness that Finland has. The stories really take place on an island somewhere near or in the Gulf of Finland, and that alone was so much to take in. Jansson did such an amazing job of describing the wilderness that Sophia and Grandmother explore and live in with lush greenery and strong winds and pockets of forests where they could build their own creatures and little worlds. It was insane and it is definitely something I would love to see in person one day. 

Also, this was just turned into a movie??!?!! With Glenn Close?!?!?! I was just googling a cover of the book and was asked if I wanted results for the book or for the movie and the shock there was a recent movie out was crazy. It came out like, a couple months ago. It looks like it's not available for streaming yet, which is sad, but hopefully it will be out like that by next spring. I think this would be a really good book to reread or movie to watch around that time of the year. 

This was such a great collection of short stories. I really really enjoyed them and it definitely helped take me to Finland. 

Thanks for reading!