The Borrowers Afloat

The Borrowers Afloat has Homily, Pod, and Arriety when they get on a teapot.

Here’s what I liked about it: I liked the part that Homily was going, “What will become of us?” when she was adrift. I also liked the part when she was only with her petticoat.

Here’s what I don’t like about it.

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I don’t like the part when Mile Eye when was going to catch them on the fishing net.

-by Naomi Fotenos (~age 5)

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The third in The Borrowers series of books, The Borrowers Afloat sees Pod, Homily and Arrietty living in blighted conditions with their relatives in a run-down cottage that is soon to be left empty because Tom, Arrietty's Human friend, is going to live with his uncle. The Borrower family then make

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the decision to set out for the much-spoken of Little Fordham, a model village that lies at the end of a dangerous river. With the help of Spiller and his broken kettle, the Borrowers flee their weasel-haunted home and take the journey downstream, where nothing but mad gypsies and the unknown await them.

I don't think I've ever read a Borrower book, even though I am well-versed in the story, which, as an English person, isn't quite as inappropriate and weird as it sounds. Borrowers are similar to Lilliputians in size but that is where the similarity ends. As you can gather from their name, they "borrow" items from the Humans whose homes they inhabit, always keeping out of the way as much as possible. Although technically the Borrowers are stealing, it's always harmless and they're very endearing towards those they "borrow" from. This particular story was interesting because it drove the imagery I had of the Borrowers out of my mind (homely, frightened, comfortable under the floorboards) and basically dumped myself and the Borrowers in the outside world, where birds and rivers threaten their lives at every turn.

It's a lovely children's story that is easily accessible to an adult, though it has a more British-vibe to it because of our history with it. There have been numerous television and film adaptations and the thought of tiny people living under our floorboards as if there were mice is so ingrained in to us it's almost part of our culture.

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This is a delightful fantasy series, all about the adventures of a tiny family, just a few inches tall. Known as "Borrowers", they and their kind have learned to adapt to living secretly with "Human Beans" by "borrowing" all the items necessary for life.

When we last left the Clock family, they had

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finally found shelter; but when the human family moves away, the Clock family must find a new home too. With the help of Spiller, they begin the search in this third book, and take temporary shelter in an old tea-kettle, but when the rains come, the kettle floats away!
Many more adventures are in store for the tiny family before they find the object of their search, a tiny village built by a model railroad hobbiest, just their size.

Beautifully written and sure to please children of all ages.

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This Was A Little Bit Dull In Comparison To Other Borrowers Books (1, 2).
But still Imagination Of Mary Norton Is Very Much Praisable... I Think ""She Herself Becomes A Borrower When It Comes To Write The Series""..
Well, There Wasn't Much Of Arriety's role In This Part. But Spiller Is Showing Some

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Progress.. Homily, Pod And Arriety are Now Liking Spiller Very Much .. And They Feel Much Secure When He's Around.. Spiller Is Helping Them.. He Gave Them The Kettle to live in after they left Heandriers, ..
Still Good A Four-Star Novel

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This is the third book in the series. The biggest let down was that the beginning of the second chapter was almost word for word of the last chapter of the previous book. I found it distracting and a bit annoying...and even alarming, to some degree, as I don’t agree that an author should do this.

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It’s fine to ‘remind’ the reader of what’s gone before, but to literally copy and paste such a large section of text is not acceptable (in my opinion). However, once I got passed that bit I was happy to settle back into the story of the Borrower family.

Spiller has become a main character now. He is only young but he is worldly and knows how to survive out of doors. The Clock family learn a lot from him. And he saves them time and time again—from one thing or another.

The point of view jumps from one person to another, which I’ve gotten used to, but I did notice in this book that the point of view was mainly with the mother, Homily. She can be a bit annoying, but we were also shown the strong side of her, which I found endearing so I didn’t mind seeing things through her eyes.

The adventures continue. The story and the characters are delightful. And I’m still enjoying the books.

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Installment #3 of the Borrowers saga was, for my money, the strongest. Spiller comes into his own here, and he's quite the taciturn but romantic hero. Arrietty may possibly learn a thing or two in this novel,though it's arguable, as she continues with the talking to humans at every opportunity.

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Pod's a resourceful if staid old gentleman. Homily drives me mad with her panics and her flighty girly taking on.

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Third in the Borrowers series; the Borrow family (Pod, Homily and Arriety) reach their relatives (Hendreary and Lupy) and their family living in a gamekeeper's cottage, but then move on in search of a miniature town called Little Fordham. As before, very well imagined, but somehow downbeat-- they

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are almost immediately unhappy with Hendray and Lupy, for example.

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Being borrowers who quietly depend on the giant human beings around can be tough, including when the human beings pack up and move away, leaving nothing behind to...borrow. The little Clock family—Pod, Homily, and their teenaged daughter Arrietty—is thus uprooted once more to face a new

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adventure in The Borrowers Afloat by author Mary Norton.

While I first read Books One and Two of this series back in my childhood, this was my first time reading Book Three. I enjoy the old-fashioned style of these classic tales as well as the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the borrowers. (Spiller is the best!)

Though I'm not sure how much I might have appreciated it as a child, I also like how there's just enough conjecture and ambiguity from the human characters reflecting on these "past" stories of borrowers, leaving readers to decide how much to believe.

Or not.

Now, what I'm sure I wouldn't have known better about as a child are this book's uses of a term for a particular group of people—an old term that should fall out of use. Of course, you don't know until you know, and hey, these novels portray all the anti-borrower villains as horrid caricatures, not just the villains of one culture or another. Doesn't make the use of the old exonym okay, though.

Also, rather than a standalone adventure, it seems this story is mostly a bridge to connect the second and fourth books. Interludes that are just about traveling from A to B, rather than being about A and B themselves, tend not to be my favorites.

Even so, I'll be going on to see what else I didn't know as a child...

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