Product Description

The Borrowers are a tiny race of people who live hidden away in houses or other safe, convenient places, and own nothing except what they borrow from 'human beans'. The last family to live in the old house, Pod, Homily and Arriety have made a comfortable home beneath the kitchen floor. But their lives become threatened when Pod is seen while on a borrowing expedition. So Arriety is taught by her father the fine, and dangerous, art of borrowing to enable her and Homily to survive should Pod be caught...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5666 in Books
• Published on: 1993-10-28
• 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)

Synopsis
The Borrowers live in the secret places of quiet old houses; behind the mantelpiece, inside the harpsichord, under the kitchen clock. They own nothing, borrow everything, and think that human beings were invented just to do the dirty work. Arrietty's father, Pod, was an expert Borrower. He could scale curtains using a hatpin, and bring back a doll's teacup without breaking it. Girls weren't supposed to go borrowing but as Arrietty was an only child her father broke the rule, and then something happened which changed their lives. She made friends with the human boy living in the house...

Customer Reviews

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.

What would they "borrow" from your home?
Have you ever pondered where your hairclips, bobby pins and thimbles have gotten to? Do you wonder why small quantities of your father's tobacco and Madeira seem to smoke themselves or evaporate? Did your wooden knight ever ride off the chessboard never to be seen again?

You don't even know what I'm talking about, do you? OK, so have you ever lost your iPod Nano? Maybe the Borrowers needed a stereo for their home entertainment system. The same thing happened to your Nintendo Gameboy.

Mary Norton's "The Borrowers" published in 1952 is about a race of little people living beside a rain pipe, over the mantel, behind the harpsichord and in all the nooks and crannies of the house. These little people "borrow" from us, the big people. They use blotting paper for their carpets, a single onion ring for their cooking and postage stamps for wall portraits.

In the book, Pod, Homily and Arriety are the last Borrowers left in Aunt Sophy's house. They lived in the floorboards under the kitchen ad entered and exited their home from a hole behind the grandfather clock. They weren't rich but they had everything they needed - potatoes for their supper, a gas pipe leak for their cooking, a foie gras dish for their bath. Pod, the father, ventures into the house every now and then for supplies.

This is the story of how Arriety, after being allowed to go borrowing with her father, befriended a nine-year old boy who was a visitor in the house. Then their lives change forever: They discover news about their Borrower relatives, gain new riches and then lose everything they own.

This is a good story to read in a big house on a rainy afternoon. Perhaps you can explore the house for little corners where a Borrower may be living. Or you can guess which of the little things lying around the house are useful for them.

Even if you live in an apartment in the big city with the most modern furniture and high tech gadgets, it would still be fun to imagine what a Borrower family would be using these days. What would a Borrower your age be playing with? What would they use for furniture? Where would they be living?

I bought a package of IKEA tealight candles once and some of them have disappeared. Perhaps a family of Borrowers illuminate their cozy little home with them. Well, they can buy their own iPhone if they need to surf the internet; I'm not letting mine out of my sight.

A Joy
An absolute classic, written for the slightly brighter child than most novels of it's time, so it unfortunately may be lost on most kids nowadays. Being 21 doesn't stop me from enjoying what is well-written, funny and sad, with wonderful characterization. I have yet to read the other books in the series, but this is just great stuff. And to those who remember the TV Series - that was good too, but it did take some liberties with the story to squish the first two books into a six episode series.
Highly recommended :) It's in my 100 favourite books of all time :)