The Borrowers [Paperback]

Mary Norton (Author), Beth Krush (Author), Joe Krush (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1993

This is the classic story--read and loved by children all over the world--of Pod, Homily, and their daughter, Arrietty, who live under the kitchen floor in a quiet, half-empty house and get their livelihood by borrowing from the “human beans.” “Delectable fantasy.”--Booklist

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com 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 outfit their subterranean quarters with the tidbits 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)

Review

For 50 years, fans have enjoyed Mary Norton's classic story of The Borrowers, the tiny family (Pod, Homily and their daughter, Arrietty) that secretly lives under the floorboards. This new gift edition features sepia-toned pen-and-inks that Diana Stanley drew for the original 1952 British edition a new foreword by Leonard Marcus explains the book's history, and a ribbon bookmark keeps the place for avid fans. (Publishers Weekly )

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 outfit their subterranean quarters with the tidbits 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) (Amazon.com Review ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books (J) (November 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152000860
• ISBN-13: 978-0152000868
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #982,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

138 of 144 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, but check out the age level, June 14, 2000

By 

Quaker Annie "reader" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Borrowers (Hardcover)

When I was a child of 12 or 13, I loved the Borrowers books. The idea of a family of tiny people, living in my own house and taking, for the most practical of purposes, things we'd thought we'd lost was quite enjoyable. The best part of the books, for me, were the descriptions of what they did with the buttons and baubles they risked their lives to 'borrow' - (imagine bumping into our family cat late one night while you're trying to lug a teacup back home).

Because I was a young girl who thought girls could do anything, I didn't really appreciate Arrietty's spunkiness. As the only child of the last Borrowers in this household, she's allowed to do many things her own mother hadn't done as a child. And perhaps because she can do some things her mother couldn't, she moves a step further and does whatever any boy could do.

I thought I could read these books to my 8 year old, who loves the Harry Potter series and The Wrinkle in Time books, but these books are too difficult for little kids (even those reading at an advanced level).

The language is very British and there are side explanations that are much too lengthy. Evidently I missed, as a pre-teen reader, the notion that the Borrowers might have been fabricated by the boy who was narrating the stories. (It is rather absurd to think that they were made up - I've lost too many socks and earrings in my lifetime, so I know Borrowers exist.)

Before the John Goodman version of the movie, we watched British video of The Borrowers and The Return of the Borrowers (great for younger kids). It was excellent, even though the special effects aren't where they were in the American version, the British version was excellent.

For those 11 and up (to 111) this is a great series to read.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story that I'll always remember... and love..., July 27, 2000

By 

jyosefin (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Borrowers (Hardcover)

I first read this book 10 years ago when I was still in Primary School and I instantly became a fan. I still remember that it was my home tutor , Ms Sim, who introduced me to this book. Now 10 years later, I re-read this book and still love it. I feel that anyone and everyone can enjoy this book, not only the kids.

The Borrowers are actually a race of little people. They believed that the human 'beans' lived to provide for them. The Borrowers loved houses that were very organised. The residents of the house must always follow a pattern of behavior so that the Borrowers could 'borrow' things from the house without being 'seen'.

"The Borrowers" tells the story of a Borrower family - the Clocks. They were Pod and Homily Clock and their 13 years old daughter, Arrietty. Why were they called the Clocks? The reason was simple enough. It's because this particular Borrower family lived under the kitchen floor but the entrance to their home was behind the old grandfather clock. So the last name of a Borrower could be anything, depending on where they lived. There were the Overmantels, the Rain-Barrels, the Bell-Pulls, the John Studdingtons (they lived behind the picture of John Studdington), the Boot-Racks and so on... The Borrowers loved to live a long way off from the entrance to their home.

Arrietty was a curious girl who had dreamed of going out to see the world other than the world under the kitchen. One day, her father agreed to let her go 'borrowing' with him. One that day, she was 'seen' by a boy (a human 'bean' boy) who had gone to lived in that house because he was unwell and needed time to recover. The boy has assisted the Clocks with their 'borrowings' later on. But good things are always not meant to be forever... Things started to happen, creating chaos in the lives of the Clocks.

When I read this book last time, I was sad that the boy didn't see the Borrowers again and I wanted to know what happened after this book. I didn't know that there were sequels to this book then. A couple of days ago, I found the sequels to "The Borrowers" and I can't wait to read them. I really feel that "The Borrowers" has an interesting and orginal storyline that can be enjoyed by all.

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Rating is for the Kindle version, not the book itself, January 2, 2012

By 

Serge van Neck (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Borrowers (Kindle Edition)

If I'm to pay $4.50 for this Kindle book -- no doubt about the same I'd pay for the paperback -- I would expect not to have to run into common OCR errors that take so much away from the reading enjoyment. Is it too much to ask to have the scan proofread? If it had been free I would not complain, but it bothers me to no end that a Kindle edition can be sold as an equivalent of the printed version, but not be subjected to the same scrutiny before publication. Shame.