The Borrowers

By Mary Norton

Original copyright 1952

The Borrowers are a family of tiny people who live under the floorboards of an old house.  Pod and Homily Clock, with their 13-year-old daughter Arrietty, “borrow” items and food scraps from the human home owners for their own use.  Their lives are constantly fraught with danger and they must always be cautious to never be seen.  At the same time, the teenaged Arrietty desperately longs for freedom to explore the wider world.  One day, Pod is accidentally seen by a young boy and the family must deal with the potentially dangerous consequences.  We really come to know and love the Clock family and the family of human “beans” who live above the floorboards.  We come to understand Arrietty’s desire for freedom and her parents’ need to keep the family safe.  

What I loved most about this book was the imaginative ways in which “borrowed” items were used in the home of these small people.  Some of their useful finds were matchboxes they transformed into a set of drawers, a thimble now used as a soup pot, and postage stamps which became wall art.

Perhaps this is the book that is responsible for my desire to repurpose items for use in my home.  Sure, it’s a cabbage slicer – but can’t it also be a shelf?  And that old washboard makes for a nice little chalkboard.  One of my favorites is a recent find – a steel barrel from the Department of Civil Defense.  It was once meant to hold an emergency water supply in a fall-out shelter.  It now serves nicely as a small table.  

The Borrowers is a wonderful children’s book for so many reasons.  For me personally, it inspires imaginative ways of looking at the world – ways of using objects for something other than their originally intended purpose.