Little My

Little My (Swedish: "Lilla My", Finnish: "Pikku Myy") is a character in the Moomin series of books by Tove Jansson. She first appears in the fourth book, The Exploits of Moominpappa. She is a small, determined and fiercely independent Mymble. When she wants something done, she does it straight away. She is very aggressive and totally disrespectful, but can be a good friend. She has a brash personality which is questionably due to her own awkwardness. She is the Mymble's Daughter's younger sister. She is eventually adopted by the Moomin family.

The name Little My originated from the Greek alphabet μ (Mu); in Swedish, ["my"] is the phonetic pronunciation of the word "my".

The popularity of the character has led to the personal name "My" being borne by more than 3000 women and girls in Sweden. [http://www.svenskanamn.com/SvenskaNamn/Namn.aspx?Namn=My]

Appearances

Little My appears in the following books:

*4 "The Exploits of Moominpappa" - Little My is born on a Midsummer's Day during Moominpappa's youth, and is referred to as the smallest and youngest of all the Mymble's children; so small, in fact that you can hardly even see her. She doesn't play a very large part in the book, but does on occasion display her fondness for mishchief and cheerfully morbid fascination for disaster and destruction.
*5 "Moominsummer Madness" - In this book, Little My has grown enough that she can take a more active part in the plot, though she is still small enough that Snufkin can carry her in his pocket. She is now in the care of her older sister, The Mymble's daughter, who unsuccessfully tries to teach her good behavior, but is separated from the others during the course of the plot and ends up being rescued by Snufkin, whom she accompanies for most of the rest of the book as he battles a rule-obsessed Park Keeper and ends up unwittingly "rescuing" a group of other children as well.
*6 "Moominland Midwinter" - Little My is the only character, apart from Moomintroll, who wakes from hibernation and gets to experience winter for the first time. Unlike him, she immediately finds this "new, ice-cold world" to be great fun, especially after she discovers winter sports.
*7 "Tales from Moominvalley" - This book consists of several short stories, three of which feature Little My: "A Tale of Horror", where she tells tall tales of terror and doom to the -Next-to-youngest-Whomper, "The Last Dragon on Earth", in which she basically plays the nosy, sarcastic and insensitive younger sibling to Moomintroll, and "The Invisible Child", where she demonstrates her own ideas about how to help the invisible Ninny become visible again.
*8 "Moominpappa at Sea" -- Here, Little My accompanies the Moomin family to the lighthouse island and is a constant presence in the book. Again, she is the only character who instantly takes to the new life and remains cheerful throughout.

In addition, Little My plays major roles in the picture-books "The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My" and "An Unwanted Guest", has a brief speaking role in "The Dangerous Journey", and makes a silent (and unmentioned by the narrative) cameo in one of the illustrations in "Who Will Comfort Toffle?" She's also mentioned a number of times in Moominvalley in November, but since this book takes place roughly at the same time as the trip to the lighthouse island in "Moominpappa at Sea," she doesn't actually appear in person.

She also shows up as a major character in most Moomin-related media, comics, movies and TV series.