Product Description

Pod, Homily and Arrietty are a family of tiny people who live beneath the floor. Everything they have is borrowed from the 'human beans', who don't know they exist until the fateful day when Arrietty makes friends with 'the boy upstairs'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5035 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Anyone who has ever entertained the notion of "little people" living furtively among us will adore this artfully spun classic. The Borrowers--a Carnegie Medal winner, a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award book, and an ALA Distinguished Book--has stolen the hearts of thousands of readers since its 1953 publication. Mary Norton (1903-1993) creates a make-believe world in which tiny people live hidden from humankind beneath the floorboards of a quiet country house in England.

Pod, Homily and daughter Arrietty of the diminutive Clock family fit out their subterranean quarters with the titbits and trinkets they've "borrowed" from "human beans", employing matchboxes for storage and postage stamps for paintings. Readers will delight in the resourceful way the Borrowers recycle household objects. For example, "Homily had made her a small pair of Turkish bloomers from two glove fingers for 'knocking about in the mornings.'"

The persistent pilfering goes undetected until a boy (with a ferret!) comes to live in the country house. Curiosity drives Arrietty to commit the worst mistake a Borrower can make: she allows herself to be seen. This engaging, sometimes hair-raisingly suspenseful adventure is recounted in the kind, eloquent voice of narrator Mrs May, whose brother might--just might--have seen an actual Borrower in the country house many years ago. (Ages 9 to 12)

About the Author
Mary Norton was born in 1903 and brought up in a house in Bedfordshire, which was to become the setting for The Borrowers. First published in 1952, The Borrowers was an imediate success, winning the Library Association's Carnegie Medal. There followed four more Borrowers books: The Borrowers Afield (1955), The Borrowers Afloat (1959), The Borrowers Aloft (1961) and The Borrowers Avenged (1982). Poor Stainless was the last Borrowers story Mary Norton wrote. She died in 1992.

Customer Reviews

Enchanting
Unknown to the humans who seem to rule the Earth, they actually share the world with a race of little people, the Borrowers. Living beneath the floorboards, and anywhere else they can remain unseen, the Borrowers live by "borrowing" what they need from the "human beans." This is the story of one family (Pod, Homily and Arrietty Clock), their life in a spacious home, their borrowing, and their efforts to stay unseen. But Arrietty wants to see what else there is to life, and she is going to see it!

This is such a wonderful book. The story is charming, with the illustrations showing a realistic (if tiny) family. My children loved this story, and even have developed some games based on the story. If you have children, then please consider buying this book for them.

Imaginative
The Borrowers is about Pod and Homily and the thirteen-year-old Arrietty, a family of tiny people, just a few inches high, who live under the floorboards of an old country house in England. They exist and furnish their tiny home by "borrowing" scraps and oddments from the house above. To do this they have to go on daring raids to gather the items they need. The author makes it quite clear that this is not stealing, as the Borrowers only take items that would otherwise be neglected or thrown away. Mary Norton invented a wonderfully imaginative world with these books and they can still be read and enjoyed by children today.

Cute!
I never read the Borrowers as a kid, but I do remember seeing them on telly. When I came across an old copy at a fleamarket the other week, I decided to read it. Being an adult I still enjoy children's books, as so many of them now are "cross overs" that works well for both adults and kids. This one however, is made only for children. Though I did enjoy the story, and it's witts, it moves forward in a pace PERFECT for youngsters (7-9yrs). But it gets boring for us "grown-ups" after a while. Never the less, the book is a classic, and it is not a classic for nought. It IS good, funny and charming. And I am planning to read the next installment as well.

It tells the story of a family of borrowers, little people, just like you and me, that lives under the floor of an old house. They are the size of mice, and get by from things "borrowed" from the big people. Of course being out on a hunt for things to borrow is very very dangerous. You might be seen by the "giants" (us) or get cought by cats and many other dangers that lurk. It aint easy being safe when a doormat looks like a big field with high grass!!!
M. Norton is very good at describing just that, how things would feel and look when you're the size of a teaspoon!