Oldies But Goodies
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review of The Complete Adventures of the Borrowers
by Mary Norton
by Karen S. Wiesner
Be aware
that there may be spoilers in this review.
One of my first forays into fantasy literature was Mary Norton's timeless adventure series about a family of little people living in the walls and floor of an English home. These little beings are called Borrowers because they borrow from the human "beans" who live in the house--borrow in the sense that they never give any of these things back, of course! Even their names were apparently borrowed from human objects. The series had five installments including The Borrowers (1952 but 1953 for the US version), The Borrowers Afield (1955), The Borrowers Afloat (1959), The Borrowers Aloft (1961), and The Borrowers Avenged (1982).
The saga follows the Clock family (consisting of father and mother, Pod and Homily, and their teenage daughter, Arrietty). Their original home was based on the place the author was herself raised, namely The Cedars. Arrietty is fascinated by "Big People" and gets into all sorts of trouble because of it. In the first book, she befriends "the Boy", who eventually delivers a letter to other Borrowers, Arrietty's aunt, uncle, and children who she's heard "emigrated". The Boy gives them dollhouse furniture and other useful things, but the household cook Mrs. Driver and the gardener Crampfurl become suspicious. Forced to flee, the family ends up living in an old boot, and the mysterious, wild Borrower boy Spiller, who's around Arrietty's age, brings them food. Each subsequent installment has the Borrowers trying to find a permanent place to call home, away from those who want to make their existence known to the world (for profit). Beyond being titled alliteratively and even alphabetically, interestingly, with Books 2-5, all the stories are named for what happens at the very end of each title. Specifically, at the end of Book 1, the Borrower family finds themselves "afield"; at the end of 2, they're "afloat"; at the end of 3, they're "aloft"; and at the end of 5, they're at last "avenged".
The characters and plots are winsome, compelling, and chock-full of old-fashioned fun. While the specified reading age is 8-12, why deny yourself the pleasure of such a magical story filled with the journeys of tiny creatures most of us hoped really existed when we were young? In 1983, a 700-page omnibus including all five stories was published at a very reasonable price. Included with it was a novelette called Poor Stainless--A New Story About the Borrowers, which was written in 1966 and published posthumously. This was apparently a story Homily told Arrietty, no doubt to scare her into submission. In it, Stainless, a Borrower, got lost. I suspect the plucky, adventurous Arrietty went forth unmoved and unimpeded after hearing it.
As I said, this was my first taste of fantasy novels growing up. Though generally my own family went home (our permanent residence in Wisconsin) before school started each year, after a summer spent in whatever place my dad was working temporarily, this particular year my brother, sister, and I actually started school in the state we were in (South Dakota that time, I believe). I read the first three Borrowers' installments as school library books while there, but I was only a little more than half through the fourth story when we had to go home. I sought out the book after that, hoping to finish it, but I never quite got back into the series, though I know the gist of how it ended (the title specifically told me they'd be "afloat" and Pod had been working on the hot-air balloon within the story). Until recently, I've never finished Book 4 nor read the final series book that came out much, much later than the others (30 years! As an author myself, that's simply beyond imagining!), nor the novelette. I purchased the boxed set, which had the Stainless short, though the original "short author's note" wasn't included with it. As this series holds a ton of nostalgia for me, in 2026, I did at long last finish Book 4, the novelette, and Book 5, which introduced at least one new Borrower and ended on a satisfying happily ever after for this ingenious little family.
You might be interested to know that many movies and TV series have been
launched with roots that go back to Norton's classic Borrowers Series, as well
as a similar series called The Littles,
first published in 1967, written by John Peterson, about little people with
mouse-like features (tail included) that live in a house with a family called
Bigg. As you'll probably guess, I also read that when I was much younger, and
enjoyed it, although it's always been The
Borrowers that held my heart. Give it a try. I can't imagine you won't be glad
you did.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books
and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
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