The Borrowers by Mary Norton

Recommended by Megan Eggers

Pod, Homily, and little Arrietty Clock live under the kitchen floor behind a standing clock that can never be moved. They are Borrowers and if you don’t know what that means, just ask yourself where all the socks, and postage stamps, and hairpins you ever bought all ended up. They can’t all be where you left them or you wouldn’t have to keep buying such things over and over again. That’s where the Borrowers come in, because, you see, they have developed the queer idea that Human Beans (that’s us) only exist to provide them with things to live on…maybe it would help if I described them. The Borrowers are people just like you and I, they have their faults and their virtues, their hopes and fears, but they are small, so small that dollhouse furniture is just right for them, so small that great big people like us scare them silly just as they, being the size of mice, might scare some of us silly. And so, the Borrowers “borrow” everything they need from the unsuspecting Human Beans in the house above, but are the humans really so unsuspecting and what happens if a Borrower gets “seen”?
This enchanting novel from master storyteller Mary Norton provides a unique and fantastic world set inside our own more ordinary one in a way that is delightfully believable. Readers young and old will thoroughly enjoy this classic children’s story.
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If you enjoyed The Borrowers you might also check out The Littles by John Peterson and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM by Robert C. O’Brien