#vacationread No 3: THE BORROWERS by Mary Norton, illustrated by Beth & Joe Krusch, from Clarion Books

THE BORROWERS is one of those children’s classics that I seem to have missed as a kid myself, and when it popped up on one of @greenhandbooks posts, I ordered a copy and I’m so glad I did! Mary Norton’s tale of tiny people that live in the walls and under the floors of houses and “borrow” our everyday items to make their homes with is positively charming.

Pod, Homily, and their daughter, Arrietty, the Clock family, live their quiet, routine lives under the floor of the kitchen of an English manor. They spend their days like anyone else, except for their size and their need to borrow our everyday items to furnish their minuscule home. When Pod is ‘seen’ by a young human boy, it sets in motion a series of events that lead to the Clocks doing everything they can to keep their secretive home.

This is a quick read with four follow-ups that continue the story of the Clocks, and I’ll be checking those out. I’m almost glad that I came to these as an adult, because I’m not sure I would have enjoyed all the nuances of the story as a kid. So, if you’re an adult and you’ve never read this, give it a try; it’s clever enough to keep adults amused.

🏷️ #TheBorrowers #MaryNorton #BethKrusch #JoeKrusch #ClarionBooks #childrensbooks #fantasy #middlegradebooks #books #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #bookworm #booklover #bookreview #frommybookshelf #frommybookshelfblog ( )

AR: 5.3

I'm going to start my review with a digression. Often parents will ask children's librarians some form of this question: "Can you help me find books for my second grader who reads at an eighth grade level?" What they want is something challenging, but not too mature. Most times, I point these parents towards classics. Children's books written before, say, 1960 (if they're still in print) tend to be wholesome and full of unfamiliar words and complex sentence structures. So, bingo! There you have it. (I will also tell parents that just because their kid reads at an eighth level, doesn't mean they shouldn't be reading good books for second graders.)

The Borrowers definitely falls into this wholesome/challenging classics genre. I chose it for my middle grade book club this summer because it matches our theme (Dig Into Reading!) and because I have some smart cookies in the group and I want to see if they enjoy a book with a very different kind of appeal than most of the books I pick (our other books this summer were [b:Holes|38709|Holes (Holes, #1)|Louis Sachar|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327781893s/38709.jpg|1679789] and [b:Gregor the Overlander|262430|Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1173234171s/262430.jpg|524491]).

Though I shouldn't have been, I was surprised at how deep this book was. I especially liked this exchange (from page 84 of my copy):

"...Borrower's don't steal."
"Except from human beings," said the boy.
Arrietty burst out laughing; she laughed so much that she had to hide her face in the primrose. "Oh dear," she gasped with tears in her eyes, "you are funny!" She stared upward at his puzzled face. "Human beans are for Borrowers - like bread's for butter!"

This is an amazing lesson on perspective. Still, I only gave the book three stars because I didn't fall in love with it. I enjoyed it, and was impressed by it, but it didn't have the magic for me. Maybe because I'm a grown-up and I never read it as a child. ( )

The Clock family--Homily, Pod, and their fourteen-year-old daughter, Arrietty--are tiny people who live underneath the kitchen floor of an English manor. All their minuscule home furnishings, from postage stamp paintings to champagne cork chairs, are "borrowed" from the "human beans" who tromp around loudly above them. All is well until Pod is spotted upstairs by a human boy! Can the Clocks stay nested safely in their beloved hidden home, or will they be forced to flee?

Although I have no specific memories of it, I know that I read The Borrowers when I was younger. I'm certain my younger self enjoyed this whimsical tale of miniature people living within the walls and under the floorboards of an English estate, borrowing food and clothing and brick-a-brac from the humans above. The people who exist for the Borrowers' convenience. What's interesting in rereading it as an adult is to see adult themes subtly introduced and know that many of the novel's finer points were probably lost on me. That the mild feminism displayed in Homily's admonition of her husband, Pod, that if he had a son he would have already taken him borrowing (after he refuses to consider taking his daughter) was lost on my adolescent innocence. That the personalities introduced, the shrewish Mrs Driver, the not-so-dotty Great Aunt Sophy, the Boy and especially the narrator's unnamed brother entertained me without necessarily causing me to think too hard about the way the world works.

Seventy-plus years afters its publication, The Borrowers is still a great book both for children to read and adults to revisit (or read for the first time, if you've never had the pleasure). ( )