10y3m old dd loved it. Descriptive language was fantastic. ( )

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! ( )

The Borrowers is one of those children's classics that I am always wanting to reread. I reread the series probably once a year at least, and the stories get better every time. My only quibble with them is that they are so short!

This is the first book in the series and was originally published in 1952. It's the story of Pod, Homily, and Arrietty Clock, a family of tiny people who are very like humans, but about six inches in height. Borrowers survive by "borrowing" what they need from the Big People. Borrowers prefer sleepy old houses in the country, where the routines are firm and the humans few. For borrowers must live secretly, or the humans will capture them and exhibit them like animals in a zoo. Their very survival depends upon this secrecy.

But Arrietty, Pod and Homily's only daughter, is tired of the safe life under the kitchen. She hates the long, dusty passages under the floors and the dull loneliness of secrecy. She longs for the outdoors, for freedom — and when Pod finally agrees to take her on a borrowing trip, she is overjoyed. But when she meets a human boy unexpectedly in that great outside world, a chain of events is set in motion that wil change their lives forever. They must flee their old home and strike out in search of a new place.

I think one of the strongest things about this story is the characters. They are entirely believable, and both Pod and Homily remind me a great deal of my own parents. Even the villains are well-drawn, and you feel that you understand them. And there is always that lingering uncertainty, the little coincidences that *might* just mean the whole story of the borrowers is made-up.

Though she never gets bogged down in wordy explanations, Norton somehow makes all the details of their precarious lives convincing. Everything is do-able, down to the last technical detail of how Pod climbs up the steps or improvises something for their little home.

The message — if I want to weigh down such a delightful story with something so ponderous and adult as that — is that independence, even if inconvenient and difficult, is far better than a comfortable dependence. Oh yes, the dolls' furniture and decorations delivered right to their home are nice, but, as Norton puts it in one of the later books, "improvisation is life and breath to borrowers." It's a matter of self-respect.

I cannot wait until I have children of my own and we read these books together for the first time. I can't recommend them highly enough. ( )

This Story by Mary Norton is about tiny people who live among normal sized humans, but are never seen. They "borrow" different things from the humans in order to live. In the story, Arrietty wanders outside the house where she meets the Boy. The two become friends, and he helps her accomplish things she can't do on her own because she is little.

This is a great book that demonstrates friendship, and accepting differences. Its also amazing to see how the borrowers use items from the big people's world and adapt them to work in their little world.

The students could write a story about something they discovered is missing from their own house that the borrowers might have taken, and how they may be using it.

This is a thematic classic. I did not know that it was so old, despite that I had read another version previously in Spanish. The book is an adventure of fantasy and imagination. The next time that I wonder where my things are, I should consider the possibility that tiny beings are snaking around...