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tapx100's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
lizzie_beth98's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
devontrevarrowflaherty's review against another edition
4.0
Here are a few of the books that I remember loving in late-elementary school: A Wrinkle in Time, Caddie Woodlawn, The Wheel on the School, The Indian in the Cupboard, and The Borrowers. (Also the Babysitters Club, but we don’t need to pretend that’s great literature; just good, clean fun.) It occurs to me that I have now read all of those books with my son except for The Indian in the Cupboard. I don’t know what happened there. I’ll have to get on that because he’s fast out-growing reading time, in middle school. And I can’t assign it to him because he’s got a stack of books that’ll keep him busy for a while.
So we just finished The Borrowers by Mary Norton. As with many lauded children’s books, I have learned too late that it is part of a series. The series is:
The Borrowers
The Borrowers Afield
The Borrowers Afloat
The Borrowers Aloft
The Borrowers Avenged
The first book of the series is the one that won the Carnegie Medal in the 50s, and it can stand alone, as it very frequently does. I am going to review the first book, here. (Note: knowing that there are later books sort of takes some of the tension out of the original book, so you might want to save that tidbit of information for later, for your children. If they, then, really enjoyed the book, you might want to get them the next book in the series and be like, “Surprise! There are four more!”)
There is, unfortunately, a bit of an old-fashioned English voice here, so there were things that went right over my son’s head. And I think he tired of asking what things were. Marmalade, crochet, bit-bucket, silabub, parquet, crumpets, decanter, Maderia for the matter… I’m sure you’re sick of hearing it, but I’m an Anglophile, and I have been since I was a little girl. Eamon, on the other hand, has limited exposure to the British literature that he has read (though I have hoisted nearly all Roald Dahl books on him at one point or another). And today’s kids also seem to, in general, stick to stories that take place in their own time. Not that this is acceptable or good, but it makes it harder for them to read older stories like this, full of allusions and language that is outdated. It might be better suited for a classroom, in this case. Or maybe, like I did, they’ll just learn as they go.
At the time, this probably came across as a wildly imaginative story. All of a sudden, fairy stories were about much more earthly creatures who lived right under your floorboards! And they weren’t fairies, they were borrowers, which explains where all the missing things go. (These days, for sure, they’re borrowing our socks, tape, and scissors.) It’s still a great concept: tiny people living among us, but staying out of sight, using our things. Also, that they believe they are the center of the universe and full-sized humans exist to supply them.
It’s told as a story-within-a-story, a literary device that was not as outdated in 1952 as it is now. The narrator is telling the story to a little girl, about when her brother stayed at a great-aunt’s house and accidentally discovered the borrowers who lived there. The story comes full circle, at the end, leaving the little girl and the reader in some doubt as to whether or not borrowers really do exist. (My son was not happy about that. He said, with disappointment, “I thought that story was true inside the book.”) The story in the story revolves around the teenage Arrietty and her parents, who are the last borrowers in the grand house. Arrietty has been sheltered within an inch of her life, but she’s not the kind of girl who can be kept inside all the time, and when she sneaks off, she lands the whole family in mortal peril. There are plenty of British themes: the naughty but normal boy, an invalid in bed addicted to the bottle, the maid, getting over illness by an airing out in the country, the brow-beaten husband, etc.
It is written nicely. There is a traditional plot and definitely some adventure and action. No romance to distract, just a great book for children. I appreciate the more traditional style of the book: medium-paced with honest-to-goodness normal sentence, paragraph, and chapter length. There’s humor. There’s even sadness. I recommend it particularly for kids who will enjoy the subject matter enough to stay focused on the story through the old-fashioned bits. Or for spunky gals. Or for bourgeoning Anglophiles.
THE MOVIES
There are at least two adaptations of The Borrowers that come up when you do a little research. Neither one of them are reviewed very favorably, and you can tell just from their covers that they veer very much from the original story. Different time. More characters. Plot changes. On one hand, I don’t like that when a movie is that far off. On the other hand, I think we might need to watch a movie at “school” today. (Note: The Secret World of Arrietty looks the best of the bunch, but it’s $12 to buy online, so…)
***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***
So we just finished The Borrowers by Mary Norton. As with many lauded children’s books, I have learned too late that it is part of a series. The series is:
The Borrowers
The Borrowers Afield
The Borrowers Afloat
The Borrowers Aloft
The Borrowers Avenged
The first book of the series is the one that won the Carnegie Medal in the 50s, and it can stand alone, as it very frequently does. I am going to review the first book, here. (Note: knowing that there are later books sort of takes some of the tension out of the original book, so you might want to save that tidbit of information for later, for your children. If they, then, really enjoyed the book, you might want to get them the next book in the series and be like, “Surprise! There are four more!”)
There is, unfortunately, a bit of an old-fashioned English voice here, so there were things that went right over my son’s head. And I think he tired of asking what things were. Marmalade, crochet, bit-bucket, silabub, parquet, crumpets, decanter, Maderia for the matter… I’m sure you’re sick of hearing it, but I’m an Anglophile, and I have been since I was a little girl. Eamon, on the other hand, has limited exposure to the British literature that he has read (though I have hoisted nearly all Roald Dahl books on him at one point or another). And today’s kids also seem to, in general, stick to stories that take place in their own time. Not that this is acceptable or good, but it makes it harder for them to read older stories like this, full of allusions and language that is outdated. It might be better suited for a classroom, in this case. Or maybe, like I did, they’ll just learn as they go.
At the time, this probably came across as a wildly imaginative story. All of a sudden, fairy stories were about much more earthly creatures who lived right under your floorboards! And they weren’t fairies, they were borrowers, which explains where all the missing things go. (These days, for sure, they’re borrowing our socks, tape, and scissors.) It’s still a great concept: tiny people living among us, but staying out of sight, using our things. Also, that they believe they are the center of the universe and full-sized humans exist to supply them.
It’s told as a story-within-a-story, a literary device that was not as outdated in 1952 as it is now. The narrator is telling the story to a little girl, about when her brother stayed at a great-aunt’s house and accidentally discovered the borrowers who lived there. The story comes full circle, at the end, leaving the little girl and the reader in some doubt as to whether or not borrowers really do exist. (My son was not happy about that. He said, with disappointment, “I thought that story was true inside the book.”) The story in the story revolves around the teenage Arrietty and her parents, who are the last borrowers in the grand house. Arrietty has been sheltered within an inch of her life, but she’s not the kind of girl who can be kept inside all the time, and when she sneaks off, she lands the whole family in mortal peril. There are plenty of British themes: the naughty but normal boy, an invalid in bed addicted to the bottle, the maid, getting over illness by an airing out in the country, the brow-beaten husband, etc.
It is written nicely. There is a traditional plot and definitely some adventure and action. No romance to distract, just a great book for children. I appreciate the more traditional style of the book: medium-paced with honest-to-goodness normal sentence, paragraph, and chapter length. There’s humor. There’s even sadness. I recommend it particularly for kids who will enjoy the subject matter enough to stay focused on the story through the old-fashioned bits. Or for spunky gals. Or for bourgeoning Anglophiles.
THE MOVIES
There are at least two adaptations of The Borrowers that come up when you do a little research. Neither one of them are reviewed very favorably, and you can tell just from their covers that they veer very much from the original story. Different time. More characters. Plot changes. On one hand, I don’t like that when a movie is that far off. On the other hand, I think we might need to watch a movie at “school” today. (Note: The Secret World of Arrietty looks the best of the bunch, but it’s $12 to buy online, so…)
***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***
ewc1099's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
elainegl's review against another edition
3.0
We listened to this book. I have wanted to read (listen to) this book for years and maybe I had my hopes up too high. I thought it would be "perfect," and while I truly enjoyed it, I didn't love it as much as I thought I would. My girls enjoyed it though.
yaminagabe's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
The Borrowers (1953) by Mary Norton
I do remember I share the same peculiar fantasy about little people, scavenging and gathering teeny-tiny stuff around our home or the garden. That was when I was a little, I would practically convinced myself for having the size of thumbelina's friends.
But unlike Thumbelina, Arrietty has a family. Which is totally opposite from a lonely woman to a young 14 year old girl who was bore enough to dare talked with a human bean, to the point of defying the Borrower's tradition. .
The Borrower's were like the duwende in my hometown folklore. They were tiny people like drawves that dwells in a soil mound or a punso that's why it's known for nuno-sa-punso. But unlike the Borrowers of the western European stories, duwende in my native's origin used magic to put a cursed upon people who mistreated them or disrespected their turfs. That's why we say tabi-tabi po before entering a unknown area or a zone that we believed these mythical creatures reside to avoid 'mabuyagan' or means, being cursed.
I do remember how I considered that fern's rolled sprouts became cabbages, anthurium fruits became bread jams, iring-iring turned-into wild blackberries, agay-ay's manure makes as a fine flour. Then Snackee freebie toys became the furniture, utensils, decorations, etc. anything that we can find valuable to tiny people. That is how I grew fond with small stuff, because if your small, everything seems in proportions. You get enough food throughout the year. Even the slice of bread could be a 365 days worth of consumption and not even a morsel could be wasted--if we don't apply the concept of expiration. Useless stuff to men became a millions of worth to this people. Their different viewpoints of the world were about to exposed. I often wonder what's it really like to experience and witnessed the small wonders of the earth, even the simple small details cannot be miss out!
Arrietty Clock was a 14 year old Borrower of the family. She was bored and tedious enough being keep inside from their secret abode when finally, his father Pod decided to introduced her to their world of borrowing--by the means of it, going upstairs where human bean dwells and started to look for useful materials that a human doesn't bat an eye if it's gone.
I was first introduced by a studio ghibli movie entitled The Secret World of Arrietty (2010) where it came from the inspiration of this book itself. The setting was highly different from the film since they were using japanese characters by narrating the story. But the literature essence, themes, dramatic concept, including the idea was still noticeable and it's similarities. Meanwhile another movie in major motion pictures The Borrower's (1997) was released and gain multiple success in the market. It was a surreal feeling when I started to imagined, what if someone was also living under our floors and pipes? I begin to indulged myself with such whimsical thoughts. The way Mary Norton narrates the book truly begs to be shared and the characters were truly loveable as well.
Especially Pod and Homily, both spouse's and parent to Arrietty have nurtured their kid, grown with adventure and moral ethics by undergoing the same teaching of their traditions. It was a wild and sophisticated adventure they've had shared together and I hope I could catch another glimpse on their journey as they've been embarking another chapter of their small lives.
And I'd never meet Uncle Heandery and Egglentina but they seems to be pretty well-decent characters. Including Spiller whom I'd expected to be dashingly-well with valour and knightly stature.
The boy whose name seems didn't mention in the book was like a spitting image of a pitiful kid who dreams awake just like me.
And to Mrs. Driver, this is all I could to say for a word of advice; do pick someone with your own size, will yah?
sbsantiago93's review against another edition
4.0
*4.5
The Secret World of Arrietty is one of my favorite movies ever. So imagine my shock when I discovered that the movie was based on a book! I picked this up at a used bookstore near where I live and the minute I saw it on the shelves I knew that I had to have it. The Borrowers is slightly different than the movie but I still loved it so much. I don't really know what else to say other than this book filled my heart with such happiness. I'm so happy I picked this up :)
The Secret World of Arrietty is one of my favorite movies ever. So imagine my shock when I discovered that the movie was based on a book! I picked this up at a used bookstore near where I live and the minute I saw it on the shelves I knew that I had to have it. The Borrowers is slightly different than the movie but I still loved it so much. I don't really know what else to say other than this book filled my heart with such happiness. I'm so happy I picked this up :)
lrb610's review against another edition
3.0
I read this many years ago as a child. I bought it the other day on my Nook and will read it again and then I will give it a review but my memories of this entire series are very good.
I re-read this book in an afternoon much shorter than I remembered this book being. I still enjoyed the book but more in a nostalgia kind of way. The story is cute and sweet and makes you want to join Pod on his borrowing trips, in a way it reminds me of other books I read as a child like "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" where the main characters have to deal with the scary world that is so much bigger than they are, overall the book holds up and I would recommend it to any child looking for a good story.
I re-read this book in an afternoon much shorter than I remembered this book being. I still enjoyed the book but more in a nostalgia kind of way. The story is cute and sweet and makes you want to join Pod on his borrowing trips, in a way it reminds me of other books I read as a child like "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" where the main characters have to deal with the scary world that is so much bigger than they are, overall the book holds up and I would recommend it to any child looking for a good story.