Customer Reviews

The Borrowers

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

The Borrowers is a book for losers. Not the modern kind of loser, but people like me who are always losing stamps and pins and pens. The book tells the story of Arrietty Clock and her parents, tiny people who live beneath the floor of an old house and `borrow' the things they need from the humans who live in the house above. A postage stamp becomes a painting for their wall, pins become knitting needles. Even Arrietty's parents' names - Pod and Homily - are borrowed.

Life has never been easy for the borrowers, but now times are changing for the worse. The Sink family in the scullery, the Broom Cupboards, the Rain-Pipes and even Uncle Hendreary and his family have emigrated. Only the Clock family remain, living in fear of Mrs Driver, the housekeeper upstairs. When Pod comes home and says that a boy is living upstairs and that the boy has `seen' him, Pod's wife, Homily, is thrown into panic.

Arrietty, however, is intrigued. While her parents cling to the dubious safety of the life they know, Arrietty wonders about the world outside and dreams of adventure. She persuades her reluctant parents to let her accompany her father on his borrowing expeditions. On her first venture out, she meets the boy upstairs. A dangerous friendship develops. Meanwhile, Mrs Driver stalks the borrowers, full of the sort of cruelty Roald Dahl would have been proud to create. It is only with the boy's help that Arrietty and her parents narrowly escape Mrs Driver's attempts to destroy them. At the end of the book, Arrietty faces the dangerous adventure of emigration.

Like all great books for the young, The Borrowers can be read as an enthralling story of adventure, but also contains many layers of meaning. Mary Norton's creation of the tiny race of borrowers is an imaginative achievement in itself, but she does not stop there. She gives poignance to her tale by telling it through the voice of the boy's sister, now an old lady, who tells us at the start that her brother has long since grown up and died a `hero's de!ath' on the North-West frontier. The old lady seems to believe her brother's tale of the borrowers, and yet at the end of the book she provides evidence to suggest that the borrowers may have been nothing but a product of her brother's imagination. The reader is left wondering about reality and truth. On another level, in the relationship between the borrowers and the human world, parallels with the misunderstandings and confusions which occur between different cultures can be discerned. The uncertainties the borrowers face and their final exile mirror the plight of our world's increasing number of displaced people. Long after the book is finished, the characters and the questions their story raises reverberate around the mind. The Borrowers is a book which will fascinate, intrigue and entertain.

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.

This is a great tale of a tiny family living under the floor in a house. It shows how the father goes up into the house when everyone is asleep and "borrows" things his family needs or wants. He must only borrow things that will NOT be missed. They are not to be seen by the "big" people. Some of their relatives were seen and had to move from their home to stay safe. Once seen the "big" people will bring in exterminators and try to catch the tiny people (they think they're rats). In this story, the Borrower's daughter befriends the young boy of the house. He does NOT try to harm the family. Mater of fact, he befriends them and brings them things they need. Unfortunately, the Borrower then feels useless and their house gets cramped. It's a great book for young children (and even adults to read). It's easy to get lost in the story, even when you know people like this cannot exist. I won't tell you the ending, you need to read it for yourself. I highly recommend this book.

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.

I first read this classic when I was in grade school and haverevisited it every five or so years -- I rare thing that I reread abook or short story at all! I was engaged in the lives of the "little people" in their Victorian lives, pleased by the strong characters who even for their day were not quite as stereotyped as I feared they might be. A wonderful book for children and parents to read together.

I cannot think of any children's book more delightful to read to one's children than this book. Actually, the whole series is wonderful. When my son was small, probably 7 or 8 years old, (he is 35 now, in fact had his 35th birthday today!) I read the whole series to him, and it took several weeks, reading to him at bedtime each night, to read all of them, but it was a wonderful "bonding time" for us, though that term had not been invented then, but I knew that it helped forge a special bond between my son and myself. It conveyed my love of books and of reading to him, a past time that he enjoys to the present. We could not wait for bedtime each night to see what new adventure Pod and Arrietty would undertake, with poor Homily waiting nervously at home for them. In a later edition Spiller appears, then it really gets interesting, as Spiller is definitely a free spirit, and a perfect friend for Arrietty. Their adventures are really "edge of the seat" suspense! This may seem tame next to Star Wars or Harry Potter, but believe me, you get so engrossed in the every day struggles of these tiny people just trying to survive, and who are so much like the human "beans" they are so in fear and awe of, it is not tame or boring at all. I would give it a "10" in great adventure stories! I am a great grand mother now, but I still love "The Borrowers" and all the sequels."The Borrowers Afield" is the second in the series, and even better than the first! "The Borrowers Afloat" comes next, and it is just as wonderful and gets the tiny family into even more shenanigans out of doors, this time floating down the river in Spiller's "boat." These books are for everyone, child and adult alike. There are a couple of more in the series, the fourth is "Borrowers Aloft," so called because they are held prisoner in an attic and have no one but themselves to rely on to escape, so have to be very inventive and clever to devise a means of escape. The solution they come up with will boggle your mind and amaze you at the ingenuity of the human spirit and what it can accomplish when it has to, because these "little people" embody the pioneer spirit of our ancestors. It may be the best of all the books, but they are each so unique and so wonderful, it is hard to say one is better than another. Each one has it's own charm, and each adventure is different. Mary Norton had a very magical way of looking at things and a unique imagination evidently, to write these wonderful stories. A must for all children, and best if read with a parent, as all books are when you are young. It was a special time for my son and I, and the memory will be with him all his life, long after I am no longer with him. These books are heirlooms in my home!

Arrietty Clock and her parents, Pod and Homily, are tiny people who live beneath the floor of an old house and `borrow' the things they need from the humans who live in the house above. At one point, many borrowers lived in the house, but the others emigrated for various reasons and only the Clocks live in the house. While her parents seem happy, Arrietty longs to see the world outside. Her mother finally persuades Pod to take her borrowing and her first time out, she meets the boy upstairs. The boy is as curious about Arrietty as she is about him, and they become friends, with the boy bringing the family all kinds of gifts, furniture, food, jewelry, etc. Unfortunately, the boy takes too much and the housekeeper notices things are missing. Soon the Clocks are forced to flee.

This is a terrific book on many levels. It is a book about friendship, different cultures, greediness and fear. The book is so well written that you really do believe the Borrowers exist. After all, who hasn't lost a pencil, safety pins, needles, etc.?

Now that I've finished this book, I want to read the rest of the books in the series!

A story guaranteed to explode a child's imagination! They will never look at the nooks and crannies around the house in the same way again!

Primarily a record of the interactions of the tiny `Borrowers' (little people) and the "human beans" (the big people . . . us!) who the Borrowers see as the primary cause of trouble. Them and the cat of course!

A wonderfully imaginative tale that was a source of endless hours of fun for me as a child, and that's after I put the book down!