Customer Reviews

The Borrowers Aloft (Odyssey/Harcourt Young Classic)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a child in the 1950's, I read the original Borrowers in 4th grade. I read and re-read the one in the school library, til school closed for the summer. As luck would have it, I found the book and it's subsequent additions that summer in a book store. They were the only thing I ever BEGGED my mother to buy me. I took home The Borowers, The Borrowers Afield, and The Borrowers Afloat, and I still know parts of them by heart. When I was 18, the Borrowers Aloft came out, and my mother sent it to me at college. I was 36 when the Avenged came out, and I RAN to the bookstore. The stories are as fresh today as the first time I read them. I'm now in my 50's, and I can't imagine a life without Homily, Pod and Arriety Clock. Homily who is courageous, even though she'd rather not be. Pod, who is a simple man, taking care of his family. And Arriety, ready for life, ready for adventure, a young Victorian Feminist, if there ever was one. She taught me that a girl could be anything she wanted to be. They bravely faced a daunting world, and they're only 6 inches tall. I now own well over a thousand books, and really believe that it was this small family that lead me to my love of reading.

In this, the fourth book in the Borrowers series (after The Borrowers, The Borrowers Afield and The Borrowers Afloat), the Clocks have moved into Little Fordham, and are starting their new life. Unfortunately, unknown to them, the greedy Mr. Platter has built a rival model village. Having seen the Borrowers, he kidnaps them to add them to his own model. How can such small people escape from a prison built by such huge human "beans"?

Ah, Mary Norton (1903-92) was a genius! Her Borrower stories are an excellent combination of suspenseful adventure and heartwarming drama. My children and I love this book, and highly recommend it to you!

I liked this book a lot. I like to read about how resourceful the Borrowers are when they use stuff humans don't need or misplace. It had really nice pictures, too. I recommend this book to kids five years and older.

Again great reading in this series of books. Couldn't put it down. Great for children and adults alike

The Borrowers Aloft is Mary Norton's fourth installment in this captivating series about small people who lead hidden lives borrowing from "human beans". Pod, Homily, and Arrietty Clock are now living in the miniature village of Little Fordham, built in the back garden of a retired railroadman and maintained by the eccentric but very kind Miss Menzies. Once again Arrietty, who is now sixteen and learning more and more about the world, becomes a bridge between the worlds of borrowers and human beans. Unfortunately, another human couple with a rival miniature village have spotted the borrowers, and one night they kidnap the Clock family and hide them away with plans to put them on permanent display as prisoners.

Mary Norton's powers of description and her ability to imagine the ingenious methods the borrowers use to survive and eventually escape their predicament are as enchanting as ever. Although the world of the human beans impinges a bit too long on this story, so that it seems to take forever to actually find out what the borrowers themselves are up to, this is another fine story. It was apparently written with the intent to make it the last in the series, but fortunately a fifth installment eventually arrived.

Well, we have reached the fourth and last book in Mary
Norton's delightful series about a fanciful race of tiny people called Borrowers. Plucky and ingenious to survive in a world of giants they were living under the floorboards of a grandfather clock at Firbank Manor until they were discovered (Seen). In successive books they fled to the open fields, then to a stream, and finally traveled at great personal risk by air. Afield, Afloat and Aloft. Always seeking safety and privacy, away from the prying eyes of dreaded humans--on whose leavings they depend for survival.

When the story opens the little family (Pod, Homily, and Arietty--even their names are borrowed) has taken up residence in a charming miniature village designed by kind Mr. Pott,a one-legged former Railway worker. If his partner in detailed decoration, elderly Miss Menzies, had not believed in fairies from the start, well, who knows what would have happened? Word soon spread that he had some Live Ones down at Little Fordham, so the number of visitors who came for the railway exhibit increased.

Enter the bad guys: those greedy, despicable Platters who live a few miles away; jealous of the loss of revenue from their Riverside Teas (and copied model village) they plot to steal the little people--or whatever they are--to display them in the Spring--with proper advertising of course. Nothing could bring greater shame to a Borrower than to be put on public display--for profit no less! Homily has such a horror of Beign Seen! But they were neatly trapped and kidnapped, stowed way for the winter in the attic of the Platter's house. No one knows where the
Borrowers have disappeared but Mr. Pott and Miss Menzies easily recognize skulduggery when it occurs.

Themes include the value of family loyalty and the price of true friendship. Gentle humor and civil disobedience coincide as the Borrowers attempt to fend off the both the generous intentions of kind human beings, and the evil designs of the crooks. Arietty is growing up too, even considering her future... with mercurial Spiller. Steadfast Pod represents the ways and means of the family with his technical know-how, while Homily bemoans her fate and drags up the past of her relations. Will she ever be truly content anywhere? This story of physical and moral survival--and ultimate escape by air--proves a charming read for kids of all ages.

This series has been popular for many years and my 12 year old daughter loves it. Amazon has offered the whole series of paperbacks for a reasonable price.

This one is a hard one to review. I like it, and I don't like it. It's quite fascinating - reading about "little people" is always intriguing: how they make do with the things they have. The obvious intricacy of Mr. Pott's model house is neat. It is a well written and a book that, yes, I enjoyed. For instance, I wasn't thinking all the way through, "This is so, so boring and I can't wait to be done." But it didn't have a tightly woven or suspenseful plot, which is a must for a good book. So, this book is OK, and I would recommend reading it... it's just not the best book ever written on the face of the earth.
-An 11-year-old reader

fun to read aloud to your children, full of imagery, a continuation of Mary Norton's "The Borrowers"

I first read this series of books back when they were new. I've read them over and over through the years. I've now sent them to my granddaughters. I hope they get as much pleasure from them as I have.