Murjāņu Kurmītis un viņa draugi - Valdis Rūmnieks (2011)

I don't know what it is about moles that kept popping up as main characters in the kids books I found interesting in Latvia, but here it is again. Rūmnieks is an author of numerous children's books and the book is wonderfully illustrated by Gundega Muzikante. I was asked to find books that had more substance than a typical picture book with only a sentence or two per page, but were still colorful and easy to read - for the Latvian camps in Three Rivers. This seemed to fit the bill - it is illustrated like a picture book - every page with full color illustrations, but it is 95 pages long and has an introductory section about the place Murjāņi and 10 tales follow.

 I have to express my frustration with some Latvian publishers - Zvaigzne ABC being one of the main offenders, for not indicating the year of publication in their books. Maybe they feel it gives their books a longer shelf life, but it is a huge disservice to anyone wanting to describe a book. I have started looking dates up in the catalog of the National Library of Latvia.