The Borrowers Aloft by Mary Norton.
Title: The Borrowers Aloft.
Author: Mary Norton.
Genre: Fiction, children's lit, YA, adventure, fantasy.
Country: U.K.
Language: English.
Publication Date: 1961.
Summary: With the help of their friend Spiller, the Clock family have relocated to the miniature village of Little Fordham, where everything is perfectly scaled to Borrower size. However, they are soon discovered by Miss Menzies and the village's creator, Mr Pott. Meanwhile, the Platters, a married couple who own a rival model village, learn of the Borrowers' existence and kidnap the Clock family and keep them in an attic, planning to show them after building a see-through, escape-proof miniature house in which to display the tiny family. After Arrietty discovers a series of articles on hot-air balloons, she and her father race the clock to build a functional Borrower-size balloon before they are trapped forever.
My rating: 8/10.
♥ They stared down for a while.
"I wonder why no one ever looks up," Arrietty exclaimed suddenly.
"Human beings don't look up much," said Pod. "Too full of their own concerns." He thought a moment. "Unless, maybe, they hear a sudden loud noise... or see a flash or something. They don't have to keep their eyes open like borrowers do."
"Or birds," said Arrietty, "or mice..."
"Or anything that's hunted," said Pod.
"Isn't there anything that hunts human beings?" Arrietty asked.
"Not that I know of," said Pod. "Might do 'em a bit of good if there were. Show 'em what it feels like, for once." He was silent a moment and then he said, "Some say they hunt each other..."
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Homily, shocked. (Strictly brought up in the borrowers' code of one-for-all and all-for-one, it was as though he had accused the human race of cannibalism.) "You shouldn't say such things, Pod - no kind of creature could be as bad as that!"
"I've heard it said!" he persisted stolidly. "Sometimes singly and sometimes one lot against another lot!"
"All of them human beings?" Homily exclaimed incredulously.
Pod nodded. "Yes," he said, "all of them human beings."