2023 EDIT: Remains a lovely, charming children's classic, about childhood and wonder - wonders small and big. Though I wish it had been consistent in its POVs. I think Arrietty should have stayed the main character from beginning to end, but as it is it's all over the place. We get no real conclusion to Arrietty's character arc. And who the heck is the village boy with the ferret at the end? He comes out of nowhere and he literally does nothing. But given how the story's told and how it ends, maybe all this was intentional?
'The Borrowers' is adorable and dynamic, and I will keep it treasured on my shelf.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
A quiet little (pun unintended) classic children's fantasy. What kid wouldn't like to imagine fifteen cm tall or lower people living under their floorboards, inside their walls, in their gardens and burrows, and sneaking around on their tables and dressers and mantelpieces and curtains?
It's a fairy tale that, to a child already so small in the big scary world, can seem plausible, for there to be people even smaller than they are, also surviving as best they can.
These miniature people, the Borrowers, actually nick neglected human stuff, and only call it stealing when their "borrowed" items are taken and used by another Borrower. They think that humans ("human beans") only exist for them to take from, unaware that the world is so much bigger than they could possibly fathom. Their world is in fact a lot smaller and more insignificant than they would like to admit.
Mary Norton writes in good detail without going overboard. Characters and action come first in 'The Borrowers', and it can be read in a day.
Amid the creative tidbits and trinkets that are used for alternate purposes by the Clocks, the family of Borrowers that the reader follows, I also really like the spirited, independent and inquisitive Borrower Arrietty (lovely name). At thirteen-years-old, Arrietty is a reader, a writer of diaries, and an adventurer who is just learning about the limits of her world and her existence via a human boy who spots her by chance, in the garden while she is relaxing on her first borrowing errand with her father, Pod.
Are the Clocks really the last surviving Borrowers? Is Arrietty's poor, struggling species dying out? As if she didn't feel lonely and isolated enough. A lot of young children and teenagers can relate to her, I believe.
I can't forget the wilfulness of Arrietty's slightly-fretful mother Homily, either. Homily manages to be domesticated, strict, commanding, neurotic, materialistic, superficial, somewhat selfish, yet also fair, loving, and understanding towards her outgoing and growing (for a Borrower) daughter. A female character like her who is this well balanced, nuanced and three-dimensional, without being insulted and shamed for her vices by the narrative, without changing her ways, needs to be remarked upon; most extraordinary for a book that was written in the fifties.
'The Borrowers' is considered a timeless children's classic for a reason. There is imagination and love worked into it, and it is very good at capturing a child's viewpoint. It's wide-eyed, curious, and humble, with an existentialist thread and theme cleverly stitched in; it's small but it's there, just like a Borrower, adding a melancholic edge to the story.
We all long for the fresh, innocent childhood years gone by; for the days of summer cottage and house holidays, of the outside countryside air, sun, flowers, and trees. 'The Borrowers' can take you back to that time and preserve it for you, to read a little again and again. For there are stories that are timeless, even though nothing lasts forever.
Final Score: 4/5
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