Moksu's shop

Annukka Kiuru 2018: Moksun paja
illutrated by Sirkku Linnea

Moksu is a bunny, real cotton, filled with straw. One day he is forgotten at the fair. He gets frightened and runs to a near by forest and sees a door in a rock wall. He knocks on the door, but nobody answers. Only Mr. Longlegs is sleeping in his web.

When Mr. Longlegs wakes up, he cannot remember, where the previous owner, the witch has gone. Mr. Longlegs says it is his time to see the world and he leaves the the hut to Moksu.

When Moksu is picking up  nettle to make soup, he meet two mice: Heka and Tahmo, who had fallen off the roller coaster. Moksu invites them for a soup. Tahmo's arm is almost cut loose. Moksu finds some needle and thread and Heka says he can sew.
Tahmo is cobbler and Moksu has fixed many toy cars. Together they set up shop.

Their first customer is a Mercedes, which they hound in the ditch without back tires. Moksu fixes him. He is old and does not want to be played anymore, so he decides to stay and drive the mice to the fair. If they don't see any toys to fix, they gather supplies: pins, scarfs, gloves  and other things that could be used.

Moksu was also a tv series, but is no longer in air and I couldn't find any of them online.

Elf Tojanteri and the strange Christmas guest

Annukka Kiuru 2017: Tonttu Toljanteri ja outo jouluvieras
illustrated by Sirkku Linnea

Elf Toljanteri is bitten by Grum-bee and it makes him act strangely. He snaps at everybody and refuses to do his chores. Naturally he tries to hide his condition so Santa will give him presents.

Luckily Elf Niilo, who looks just like Toljanteri comes and agrees to play Toljanteri's double. This creates all kinds of silly situations.

The Treat department is busy before
Christmas

I have been reading this to the boys and now I can see that they are listening. Every time a grown-up snaps or shows temper they say he (notice it usually is a he) is bitten by a grump-bee.  I also like the colorful language that is used. We also learn about tuhmaikä (a version of uhmaikä which children get in the age between 1-5, when they learn independence and defy all orders given to them.)

Grump-bee aka Äkäampiainen

Elf Toljanteri and the secret misson from Santa

Annukka Kiuru 2016: Tonttu Toljanteri ja joulupukin salainen tehtävä
illustrated by Sirkku Linnea

Elf Toljanteri is a beloved character from Christmas calendar (Joulukalenteri) broadcasted by YLE between 1998-2013.  Now we can enjoy Toljanteri's life in a book.  The example link is from 2007, when Toljanteri is taking over Mrs. Clauses activities, because she has caught the sleep bug and only sleeps.

The book is written by the scriptwriter of the series and the plot of this book is from the last season of Toljanteri's adventures, where Toljanteri takes over the tasks of the elves' elf, which means he has to write down, which elf is naughty and which is nice. Meanwhile Christmas is coming, but Santa's sled is worryingly empty. Trouble is caused by inspector elf Irmeli, who thinks all the toys are too dangerous to be given to children.

Toljanteri helps Juuli, the elves' elf.

In the tv-series Elf Toljanteri is played by Kunto Ojansivu in all nine seasons of Joulukalenteri. I do not think any body else can ever play the role of Elf Toljanteri. Toljanteri is a very lovable character, because he is silly, makes mistakes, but learns from them. In the book he thinks about what to write to the naughty or nice list and make astute observations about, what actually happend and what is actually his interpretation of the situation.

I appologize for the fuzziness of the images.

Toljanteri's masterpiece: a frankfurter cake.