The Bottom Line: Charming book, full of imagination and creativity. Broaches some difficult topics, and uses long words & phrases and some Britishisms. Recommend this to readers old enough to handle such challenges.
At age 11 or 12, my mother checked The Borrowers out of our little English-language library. The story of little people, six inches tall, that lived in our walls and stole (excuse me, “borrowed” )odds and ends to furnish their own homes fueled my imagination for years to come. I looked at my surroundings in a new way, imagining how a Borrower would see the world around me. A rubber band left on the floor could be a bicycle chain, a bottle cap could be a soup bowl, a pop top from a soda can could be an ice cream scoop. I wrote stories of my own about little people, inspired by the Borrowers -- hundreds of pages of illustrated adventures. The possibilities were limitless.
The book went back to the library, leaving a permanent well of creativity behind it. I forgot the title and author. I did not see the book again until last month, when I was browsing in my favorite used bookstore. The title caught my eye and brought back a flood of memories. I bought it, took it home, and revisited it as an adult.
Brief Plot Summary
In the late 19th century, a family of three Borrowers, father (Pod), mother (Homily) and daughter (Arrietty) lives under the grandfather clock in an old Victorian home. The house used to be inhabited by many families of Borrowers -- the snobby Overmantles, the poor Rain-Pipes, but all have emigrated out of the house, presumably to holes in the ground a few fields away. Our family, the Clocks, are the only Borrowers left, and Homily resists emigrating because she is so fond of the material comforts provided by the humans. Arrietty feels the situation keenly. She is young and vibrant and adventuresome, she wants to live outside and have friends instead of living cooped up under the floor her entire life.
The only humans in the house are an old lady invalid, a housekeeper, and a gardener, who all keep regular habits. The father maintains his family like a good, traditional Borrower -- he creeps into the human house and takes items that won’t be missed. A sheet of blotting paper to carpet their living room, a coin to serve as a dinner plate, a knight from a chess set to decorate their parlor. He is very careful to remain unseen by the humans, but one evening he is spotted by a new inhabitant of the house -- a young boy, sent to the country to recover from ill health.
The Clocks know their lives are now in danger, and they remain in the walls for several weeks. However, eventually the necessity of getting more supplies outweighs the risk, and Pod makes another expedition into the house. This time, due to Arrietty’s champing at the bit to be free, Homily insists that Arrietty accompany her father. The experience is a wonderful one, an Arrietty skips and runs in the garden for the first time in her life. Her dancing is brought up short, however, when she comes face to face (so to speak), with the boy, and dares to speak to him. This chance meeting brings tremendous change to the family of Clocks, both wonderful and terrible, in the days to come.
Reading Level
This is not a simple book to read. It contains a number of long words and long sentences, and spends several paragraphs in description. The vocabulary is sometimes quite British. It also contains some disturbing content (see below). I would put this book in the over-ten category.
Tone
There are some dark moments in The Borrowers, that surprised me as an adult reader. I think a child might miss these undertones, but as an adult I can see them plainly.
A couple examples: before the book opens, one of the other Borrower families emigrates because their only daughter was eaten by a cat. Then, when Arrietty first meets the boy, he says something like, “don’t come any closer or I’ll crush you with a stick.” It is probably realistic that the boy would be frightened of a little apparition like Arrietty, but his reaction is far from gentle and curious.
I was also disturbed by the behavior of Homily, the mother of the family. She is materialist, and obsessed with moving up the Victorian social ladder (spurning those above her until she can be like them herself). She is willing to put her husband and daughter at risk, not for essentials like potatoes and milk, but for frivolous things like a doll’s teacup or new blotting paper for the living room. As their safety becomes compromised in the human house, she still refuses to emigrate because she can’t imagine living without all her creature comforts. Her pettiness is largely uncommented on by the author, but Homily’s actions speak for themselves: she’d almost rather be dead than live without her parlor and nice place settings. Pod has no such materialist inclinations: he’s happiest when Borrowers are in balance with their human hosts, taking just enough to get by, but not so much as to be noticed. Mostly, he wants his family to be safe and happy. Nor is Arrietty interested in acquisition. Her main desire is to be free, and she’d love to leave the human home and all its comforts if it meant greater freedom and more company.
Lastly, The Borrowers touches on a topic that is much more developed in another children’s book, The Rats of NIMH. Specifically, what does it mean to build a lifestyle that is dependent on the theft of materials and technology? Does it matter if the thefts are small and will never be noticed by the hosts? Where does one draw the line? How much of one’s safety, independence and freedom should one trade in order to gain material wealth and social standing? These are all questions raised by The Borrowers, and some of the answers are disturbing.
Conclusion
The Borrowers is a charming book, full of imagination and creativity. It also broaches some difficult, if subtle topics, and uses long words and sentences and British turns of phrase. I’d therefore recommend this book to readers old enough to handle such challenges. Or to interested adults!
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