Product Description

Pod, Homily, and Arrietty Clock's huge adventures have been thrilling children young and old for fifty years--and their appeal is as strong as ever in these handsome new paperback packages. While the original beloved interior illustrations by Beth and Joe Krush have been retained, Marla Frazee's striking cover illustrations capture these little people with a larger-than-life appeal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39730 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780152047337
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review

About the Author
MARY NORTON (1903-1992) lived in England, where she was an actress playwright, and award-winning author. As a child she created a make-believe world in which tiny people inhabited the hedgerows, living their lives out of the sight of humans. It is from this private fantasy that her most well-known books, those about the Borrowers, came about.

From AudioFile
For little folks, the Borrowers seem to have more than their share of big adventures. In THE BORROWERS AFLOAT they must find a new home after the departure of the human occupants from the cottage the tiny family has been calling home. This time they take to the river in a tea kettle as they head to a new home in Fordham Village, a model village. This tale is full of rich characterizations of the humans and vivid descriptions of the settings. Some books must be narrated by a British voice, and Norton's tales are such books. Lucky for us, Rowena Cooper is up to the task. She also does well switching voices from male to female characters, always managing to keep clear the notion that the Borrowers are small folks. Cooper is particularly adept at bringing out the emotions of the characters. P.B.J. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Very good book
I liked this book alot. It kept me very interested. There were some funny parts but mainly exciting adventures. This is a good book for a second or third grader. I am in second grade.

More adventures with the Borrowers
In this, the third book in the Borrowers series (after The Borrowers, and The Borrowers Afield), the Clocks (Pod, Homily and Arrietty) find that they must leave the safety of their new house and venture forth once again into the great big world. Setting their sights on Little Fordham, a miniature model town, the Clocks follow young Spiller out. But the world is a dangerous place for someone as small as a Borrower, and their voyage is filled with excitement.

Once again, Marty Norton has produced a story that is a lot of fun. Containing both plenty of adventure with a heartwarming story. My children and I loved this story, and you and yours will too.

Book Three in a Classic Series
Long before there were Littles or anyone shrunk their children, Mary Norton had written this warm and wonderful series about a race of tiny people who live hidden in quiet country houses and "borrow" their livings from the human inhabitants. Their lives depend on remaining unseen and unsuspected.

But little Arietty Clock, who lives with her parents (Pod and Homily) is a naturally curious girl and lonely besides. When, on her very first trip out to Borrow ("The Borrowers," 1952), she is "seen" by a little human boy, she becomes friends with him and sets off a chain of events that will threaten her family's very existence -- and make staying in their home beneath the kitchen floorboards impossible.

In this third tale (1959), Pod, Homily and Arietty are forced once more to move when their new home, the gamekeeper's cottage, is closed. They begin the search for Little Fordham, a mythical miniature village where they can live in safety under the noses of human tourists. Their journey takes them first down a drainhole with tidal waves of bathwater; then downstream in a rusted-out kettle and in Spiller's "boat" (a knifebox with a butter-knife paddle). It is a dangerous journey for such tiny people, and the crisis comes when their boat sinks and a human discovers them stranded on a heap of flotsam in the middle of the river. Once more, they must adapt and overcome if they are to survive long enough to begin a new life in Little Fordham.

With her "Borrowers" series, Mary Norton accomplished what few writers are able to do: she created a group of characters that become real through her words; and a fantasy world that is so realistic that readers young and old will be lost in it, and will look at their own world differently forever after. Though each stands alone, the first four tales read as fluidly as if they are all parts of one larger book -- indeed, they have been published as a single volume in the past -- and can be read consecutively without excessive and tiresome rehashing of the previous plots.

The books are billed by booksellers as written for 8-10 year olds, but they are ideal for reading aloud to younger children; and adults too will enjoy the sheer fun they contain. I first read them when I was ten -- long before "Avenged" was written and answered my longstanding questions about the Borrowers' fate. All five books remain in my reading cycle, to be reread every few years in their entirety. By stages funny, thrilling, and poignant, these lovely books will capture your imagination and keep you turning pages all the way to the end.