TAMPERE, Finland (AP) — The Moomins, Finland’s most lovable literary cartoon family, are celebrating their 80th birthday this year.

The chubby, white, hippopotamus-like characters have captivated readers worldwide since author and illustrator Tove Jansson published “The Moomins and the Great Flood” in 1945. The children’s book featuring Moomintroll and Moominmamma in their search for the missing Moominpappa.

Jansson, a Swedish-speaking Finn who died in 2001, went on to write eight more books, multiple picture books and a comic strip about the Moomins in Swedish.

The series, set in the fictional Moominvalley, has been translated into more than 60 languages, and sparked movie and TV adaptations, children’s plays, art gallery exhibitions and an eponymous museum — plus theme parks in Finlan

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