YMMV / Gnomes

• Awesome Art: Needless to say, this is the primary reason the original book became famous. While Huygen may have written all the fiction and the various field-guide settings for the gnomes, the main attractions are the illustrations that Poortvliet created for nearly every single page, including the dozens of full-page or two-page splash illustrations, all of which are absurdly detailed (and would've been a full canvas work for another artist) and prove the adage of pictures being worth a thousand words.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: During the lecture at the end of the story, Tomte notes the practical extinction of wolves and beavers in Europe. As of 2022, Eurasian Beavers are classified as a Least Concern species due to successful reintroduction and conservationism across mainland Europe, with some also being brought to the British Isles (this is ongoing but seems to be going well). Wolves, meanwhile, are recovering steadily from centuries of being hunted and killed. Bears, another group Tomte mentioned as being reduced severely, are also recovering, and the European Bison, an animal that was once hunted to extinction in the wild, has recovered via captive populations. While not completely returned to their territory, the European Bison has been classified as Not Threatened by the IUCN.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Buried Alive incident qualifies, as do the descriptions of trolls and snotgurgles torturing gnomes for fun. We're even treated to a full-page picture of a snotgurgle about to put a gnome's legs into a string-bean-cutting machine.