The Borrowers

[kellyrfineman]

Last week, I spent some time cleaning up the basement, in anticipation of the arrival of our Spanish exchange student, Javier, who will live with us for nearly three weeks. He will be living in S's bedroom, but she will be living in the basement: hence, the cleaning. Much of that cleaning involved going through the three bookcases that live down

Comments

[p_sunshine]

I loved The Borrowers! I think it was my second grade teacher who read it to the class. Was there something in there about a thimble? I know you mentioned the thimble as a stool, but my memory is really fuzzy (warm and fuzzy, but fuzzy nonetheless).

[kellyrfineman]

There was definitely something in there about a thimble, only I don't remember precisely how it was used. I'd have to read the book again to sort that out, and it's just not an option at the moment, as I'm still working feverishly on getting through Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for Guys Lit Wire next Tuesday.

[wordsrmylife]

A thing for the underdogs, I completely understand that.

A thing for small creatures. I get that, too. One of my all-time favorites was Mistress Masham's Repose, which I enjoyed far more than Gulliver's Travels, which, let's face it, has little appeal to young readers. I never did see any of The Borrowers movies.

[kellyrfineman]

I don't think I know Mistress Masham, although I did read a decent amount of Gulliver's Travels as a teenager - I read about at least two of the lands he visited.

borrowers

[ajboll]

For me it was that a child knew of a secret world that grown-ups (experienced but dumb) would never believe in or understand.
Listen to this, This American Life, Act 4
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=106

Re: borrowers

[kellyrfineman]

Ah - I think you're right. There is something wonderful about knowing things that grownups don't. Although in the case of the first Borrowers book, it's also safer if grownups don't know.

[lizjonesbooks]

I love those stories-- didn't discover them until my oldest did, but I love them all the same!

[kellyrfineman]

They are pretty magical, at least in my memory.

[boreal_owl]

I read the original, as an adult starting to investigate the world of children's literature. And one more, with "Miss Bianca" in the title, I think. Both were borrowed from the library. (heehee)

I agree with your reasons for its appeal. But the books also had charming, interesting characters in dangerous situations full of tension. Very well constructed plots.

And talking animals! Kids love them when they're unique and well done. I have to be careful not to get up on a soapbox about this subject, so I'll shut up now. :-)

[willowgreen]

An aunt or a grandmother gave me an omnibus edition of all the "Borrowers" books. I read them, and I wanted to like them, but I always found something off-putting about them. I'm not sure what it was.

I liked those Miss Bianca books a lot, though. If memory serves, they're the books the Disney movie "The Rescuers" was based on. I looked them up on Amazon, and the author was Margery Sharp, who also wrote a lot of very good adult books--I remember one in particular called "Britannia Mews."

[kellyrfineman]

I read them in the early 70s, and haven't read them since. It is possible that they felt dated to you, assuming that you'd have read them at a later period in time. It is also possible that some of the darker bits (I think the mother gets fairly mopey in The Borrowers Afield for instance) bugged you, or that the books contained too much description for your taste. (Again, I haven't even peeked inside them yet, but older books tended to be heavier on description of settings and objects, and that can feel really tedious to folks who were born in the 80s or later, because books changed as a result of changes in things like movies and TV - I read books at a time when we had just gotten our first color TV, and there were only 4 channels, and there were no VCRs, and movie theatres only had 2-3 movies showing at most, so we were more likely to sit through description than kids who grew up with far more media competing for their attention.)

[willowgreen]

I read them in the early 70s, and haven't read them since. It is possible that they felt dated to you, assuming that you'd have read them at a later period in time.

Nope, sounds like we're of approximately the same vintage -- I was born in 1961, and I read a lot of older, description-filled books growing up. What I remember is feeling like the books just weren't much fun--the Borrowers were always scared and worried about something. I loved the idea of little people who lived under the floorboards like mice, but I wished they could have enjoyed it more.