Helpful Score: 2
This is a very entertaining book I read as a child and just re-read. It has a great ending leaving the reader wondering whether "The Borrowers" are real or imaginary, and allows the reader to imagine the characters' future however you want. A great book for a child or adult.
Helpful Score: 1
Written in 1952, nostalgic look back at the turn of the (19th-20th) century English gentlefolk. I can imagine that kids who grew up reading this would watch all episodes of "Upstairs, Downstairs". First of 5 books, this is the important one to read, though. What I remember from the story is that the grandfather knew how to count to 57, and I was fascinated why he would stop there. Anyway, heroine is 13 years old.
Helpful Score: 1
Classic children's book! I loved these stories when I was a kid. It's about a family of tiny people that live in the walls and floorboards of a normal family's house. Follow them on their adventures navigating the big world!
Helpful Score: 1
Adventures of a family of little people. Wonderful book, 1st in a series.
Helpful Score: 1
Classic book (with lovely line drawings) for 8-12 yr olds. The book IS better than the movie -- at least have your kids read the book first!
Helpful Score: 1
Who are the Borrowers? There aren't many of the minature people left, for the rush of modern life doesn't suit them. They like to live in quiet, out-of-the-way country houses where things move in an orderly, well-established pattern. In just such a house lives the Clock family, Pod, Homily, and their daughter, Arrietty. They quietly and secretly make thier living borrowing from the "human beans" until the day a human boy comes to live in the house. In her youthful curiousity, Arrietty commits the worst Borrower mistake: she is "seen" by a "human bean"--and disaster follows. Aid comes from a most surprising source, and the Clock family escapes to find a new life and further adventure.
Helpful Score: 1
So fun to read. Finished it in one day :)
I bought the book because Joe Krush was one of my teachers in art school (many years ago) My granddaughter read the book and loved it!
Charming, the Borrowers - explains fancifully what happens to all those little things that "disappear" at home.
This is one of my all-time favorite children's lit books; better than those that follow in the series. It's easy for a child to imagine living like The Borrowers do, and it stimulates the imagination to think of all of the uses to which large versions of every day items could be used. The characters are believable and easy to like.
Claudia
Claudia
Book came in perfect condition and ended up being a great gift for a niece!
An American Library Association Distinguished book. The first of the series
What can I say - I love the Borrowers and look for them in my own home - and I'm of retirement age. Read this book and you'll love them too.
From back cover:
Underneath the kitchen floor is the world of the Borrowers-Pod and Homily Clock and their daughter, Arrietty. In their tiny home, matchboxes double as roomy dressers and postage stamps hang on the walls like paintings. Whatever the Clocks need they simply "borrow" from the "human beans" who live above them. It's a comfortable life.
Comfortable-but boring if you're a kid.
Only Pod is allowed to venture into the house above, because the danger of being seen by a human is too great. Borrowers who are seen by humans are never seen again.
Underneath the kitchen floor is the world of the Borrowers-Pod and Homily Clock and their daughter, Arrietty. In their tiny home, matchboxes double as roomy dressers and postage stamps hang on the walls like paintings. Whatever the Clocks need they simply "borrow" from the "human beans" who live above them. It's a comfortable life.
Comfortable-but boring if you're a kid.
Only Pod is allowed to venture into the house above, because the danger of being seen by a human is too great. Borrowers who are seen by humans are never seen again.
A great children's book!
I read this a LONG time ago, but remember really loving it as a kid.
Son says this book is good.
First written in 1952, first (and best) in the series.
"A rare and delicious addition to children's literature...deserves to take its place on the shelf of undying classics" Louisville Courier-Journal
Where do things disappear to? The Borrowers may have taken the missing pins and match boxes. This is one of my favorite books, both of adult's and children's literature. A classic.
