Book Review: The Borrowers books by Mary Norton

In the 1950s Mary Norton wrote The Borrowers and followed it up with four sequels: The Borrowers Afield, The Borrowers Afloat, and The Borrowers Avenged. If you’ve only seen the movie, starring John Goodman and Jim Broadbent, you may be in for a surprise. The books are about as different from the movie as it could possibly be, without changing the concept altogether. In both, however, the title characters are very little people who live inside the walls and under the floors of human dwellings, and the particular Borrowers in question are Pod and Homily Clock and their daughter Arrietty. They form an uneasy alliance with a “bean” (a human being), specifically, a boy. And their fortunes also become intertwined with a rough-around-the-edges Borrower lad named Spiller. There the similarities end.