The Borrowers Afloat

The Borrowers Afloat is the third Borrower book, and was published in 1959. I am lucky enough to have an old, battered, much-loved first edition that used to belong to a library. I love that sort of book. They made books to last back then, and the pages have such a lovely thickness. And though this copy is worn and bears much evidence of use, it has such a welcoming feel to it. It loves being read.

In this story, the Clock family is once again in search of a new home. The gamekeeper's cottage where they have been living with their relatives, the Hendrearys, is going to be closed up — and when there are no humans, there are no borrowings. This means famine. With the help of Spiller, the family escapes through the drain and comes out at show more a shallow part of the river. Many adventures follow, including a wild career down the river in a storm and a brush with the gypsy Mild-Eye from the previous book. (And yes, he still has their boot!)

Norton can take me right into the borrowers' world, and her descriptions of what it would be like to be sailing pell-mell down the river in a kettle can almost make me seasick. The characters continue to be splendid. And Beth and Joe Krush's illustrations are perfect once more.

I love how this one ends. We come back to Firbank where Mrs. Driver and Crampfurl are having their evening meal. Crampfurl is ruminating on a strange sight he saw on the river one night, one of Driver's darning needles being used as a sort of punt stick for a floating barge (very much like a knife box), and a small thin white face that looked up at him in the moonlight. "No, he wouldn't tell Driver this. Leastways, not tonight he wouldn't." Mm. show less

Being borrowers who quietly depend on the giant human beings around can be tough, including when the human beings pack up and move away, leaving nothing behind to...borrow. The little Clock family—Pod, Homily, and their teenaged daughter Arrietty—is thus uprooted once more to face a new adventure in The Borrowers Afloat by author Mary Norton.

While I first read Books One and Two of this series back in my childhood, this was my first time reading Book Three. I enjoy the old-fashioned style of these classic tales as well as the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the borrowers. (Spiller is the best!)

Though I'm not sure how much I might have appreciated it as a child, I also like how there's just enough conjecture and ambiguity from the show more human characters reflecting on these "past" stories of borrowers, leaving readers to decide how much to believe.

Or not.

Now, what I'm sure I wouldn't have known better about as a child are this book's uses of a term for a particular group of people—an old term that should fall out of use. Of course, you don't know until you know, and hey, these novels portray all the anti-borrower villains as horrid caricatures, not just the villains of one culture or another. Doesn't make the use of the old exonym okay, though.

Also, rather than a standalone adventure, it seems this story is mostly a bridge to connect the second and fourth books. Interludes that are just about traveling from A to B, rather than being about A and B themselves, tend not to be my favorites.

Even so, I'll be going on to see what else I didn't know as a child... show less

Installment #3 of the Borrowers saga was, for my money, the strongest. Spiller comes into his own here, and he's quite the taciturn but romantic hero. Arrietty may possibly learn a thing or two in this novel,though it's arguable, as she continues with the talking to humans at every opportunity. Pod's a resourceful if staid old gentleman. Homily drives me mad with her panics and her flighty girly taking on.

That’s a cute little addition to the Borrower’s world. After being ousted from their first home to live out of doors for a book, the Borrowers get another chance at ‘civilization’, this time even with family around! But alas, all is soon to end and off they go on another adventure, trying to find another life.

It’s a fun story, full of tiny adventures. While again, the ending and the frame story are by far the weakest parts of these books, they’re still great fun and well worth the read.

Pod, Homily, and Arrietty Clock -- the miniature Borrowers -- depend for their livelihood on the "human beans" whose cottage they live in. So when they discover that their humans are moving away, the Borrowers are forced to find a new home and a new family to borrow from. With the help of the wild Borrower boy Spiller, they make a harrowing journey down the cottage drain in a soap dish and are soon living in a teakettle by a river. But the poor Borrowers barely have time enough to catch their breath before flood or famine or their old enemy Milk Eye sends them looking for a home once again.

Mary Norton was one of my all time favorite authors as a child and I am pleased to say that her books stand the test of time as I still enjoy them as an adult. I find her premise to be super creative and well thought out and I really like her characters. I think the books are wonderful and I also think you should never watch the movie as it's awful and shouldn't even share a name with the novels.

The third in The Borrowers series of books, The Borrowers Afloat sees Pod, Homily and Arrietty living in blighted conditions with their relatives in a run-down cottage that is soon to be left empty because Tom, Arrietty's Human friend, is going to live with his uncle. The Borrower family then make the decision to set out for the much-spoken of Little Fordham, a model village that lies at the end of a dangerous river. With the help of Spiller and his broken kettle, the Borrowers flee their weasel-haunted home and take the journey downstream, where nothing but mad gypsies and the unknown await them.

I don't think I've ever read a Borrower book, even though I am well-versed in the story, which, as an English person, isn't quite as show more inappropriate and weird as it sounds. Borrowers are similar to Lilliputians in size but that is where the similarity ends. As you can gather from their name, they "borrow" items from the Humans whose homes they inhabit, always keeping out of the way as much as possible. Although technically the Borrowers are stealing, it's always harmless and they're very endearing towards those they "borrow" from. This particular story was interesting because it drove the imagery I had of the Borrowers out of my mind (homely, frightened, comfortable under the floorboards) and basically dumped myself and the Borrowers in the outside world, where birds and rivers threaten their lives at every turn.

It's a lovely children's story that is easily accessible to an adult, though it has a more British-vibe to it because of our history with it. There have been numerous television and film adaptations and the thought of tiny people living under our floorboards as if there were mice is so ingrained in to us it's almost part of our culture. show less