Book Review

The Borrowers

By Mary Norton
Illustrations  Sian Bailey
Cover illustraion David Kearney
Published by  Puffin
(ISBN ) 0-141-30373-5

book 1 of a series of 5 books I think

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I got this book free off a packet of Tetley Tea Bags so thank you Tetleys! It is a good book and Mary Norton writes very well. The story is about a family of tiny, tiny people who live under the floorboards of an old Victorian House. They think that the "big people" (human beans) are there just for them to "borrow" things from and to do the dirty work.

Mary Norton does very well to describe how they might live and how they might use the things we "lose" like handkerchiefs and cotton reels maybe even blotting paper. Mary Norton used her imagination very well to think of how things would look to little people and how heavy things would be for them.

In the story the family's daughter - Arietty - begins to go "borrowing" with her father and gets seen by a little boy who is staying with his sick old Aunt in the house. That's where the adventures begin.

There are other books about the Borrowers but I have not read them yet. If you have seen the film, it is not really that much like this book. There is a book of the film though. I liked the film and the book but they were different.

Iestyn Evans May 99

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