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The Borrowers

The Borrowers

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $24.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great story of a family working together to survive
Review: This is a great tale of a tiny family living under the floor in a house. It shows how the father goes up into the house when everyone is asleep and "borrows" things his family needs or wants. He must only borrow things that will NOT be missed. They are not to be seen by the "big" people. Some of their relatives were seen and had to move from their home to stay safe. Once seen the "big" people will bring in exterminators and try to catch the tiny people (they think they're rats). In this story, the Borrower's daughter befriends the young boy of the house. He does NOT try to harm the family. Mater of fact, he befriends them and brings them things they need. Unfortunately, the Borrower then feels useless and their house gets cramped. It's a great book for young children (and even adults to read). It's easy to get lost in the story, even when you know people like this cannot exist. I won't tell you the ending, you need to read it for yourself. I highly recommend this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truly a Classic...
Review: This is a wonderful book for the young or the young-at-heart. Small people living in the walls and under the floors of the houses of humans "borrow" from them to survive. For a more detailed review, please read those which have already been submitted. **** The main reason for my posting this review is to say this: If you get hold of the Sherwood Smith novelization of the movie, please understand that it is a modernized and Americanized version of this amazing work of children's literature. For the "real" story, please check out Mary Norton's novels! ****

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A very old fashioned , but well written book
Review: This yarn takes place under the kitchen floor of a house where no human child has lived in a very long time.The book begins when a lady named Mrs. May is telling a girl, Kate, about the world of the "Borrowers." From a borrowers' point of view humans are as large as giants. The human "beans," have not seen borrowers since the time of one in particular named Egglantina as it is disastrous to be seen by a human.Borrowers borrow such things as spools for seats,and even borrow names as you will see. The most interesting idea in the book was that Mary Norton wrote about a species that is a logical impossibility.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Child's eye view
Review: Tiny people live in human houses, unnoticed by the occupants, building their lives by 'borrowing' food, clothes and even language. The Borrowers deserves its classic status because, rather than talking down to children, it sees the world from their point of view. The central dilemma for the borrowers, whether to continue to be dependent or whether to strike out into the unknown world beyond the home, speaks directly and powerfully to the predicament of kids.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Enchanting
Review: Unknown to the humans who seem to rule the Earth, they actually share the world with a race of little people, the Borrowers. Living beneath the floorboards, and anywhere else they can remain unseen, the Borrowers live by "borrowing" what they need from the "human beans." This is the story of one family (Pod, Homily and Arrietty Clock), their life in a spacious home, their borrowing, and their efforts to stay unseen. But Arrietty wants to see what else there is to life, and she is going to see it!

This is such a wonderful book. The story is charming, with the illustrations showing a realistic (if tiny) family. My children loved this story, and even have developed some games based on the story. If you have children, then please consider buying this book for them.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This book is about three people who are very small and neat.
Review: Very nice book! I rate this a 8 because it is very well riten and a good book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great book, but check out the age level
Review: When I was a child of 12 or 13, I loved the Borrowers books. The idea of a family of tiny people, living in my own house and taking, for the most practical of purposes, things we'd thought we'd lost was quite enjoyable. The best part of the books, for me, were the descriptions of what they did with the buttons and baubles they risked their lives to 'borrow' - (imagine bumping into our family cat late one night while you're trying to lug a teacup back home).

Because I was a young girl who thought girls could do anything, I didn't really appreciate Arrietty's spunkiness. As the only child of the last Borrowers in this household, she's allowed to do many things her own mother hadn't done as a child. And perhaps because she can do some things her mother couldn't, she moves a step further and does whatever any boy could do.

I thought I could read these books to my 8 year old, who loves the Harry Potter series and The Wrinkle in Time books, but these books are too difficult for little kids (even those reading at an advanced level).

The language is very British and there are side explanations that are much too lengthy. Evidently I missed, as a pre-teen reader, the notion that the Borrowers might have been fabricated by the boy who was narrating the stories. (It is rather absurd to think that they were made up - I've lost too many socks and earrings in my lifetime, so I know Borrowers exist.)

Before the John Goodman version of the movie, we watched British video of The Borrowers and The Return of the Borrowers (great for younger kids). It was excellent, even though the special effects aren't where they were in the American version, the British version was excellent.

For those 11 and up (to 111) this is a great series to read.


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