Borrowers | Mary Norton

Arrietty's father, Pod, was an expert Borrower. He could scale curtains using a hatpin, and bring back a doll's teacup without breaking it. Girls weren't supposed to go borrowing but as Arrietty was an only child her father broke the rule, and then something happened which changed their lives.

A Puffin Book - stories that last a lifetime. Puffin Modern Classics are relaunched under a new logo: A Puffin Book. There are 20 titles to collect in the series, listed below, all with exciting new covers and fun-filled endnotes. The Borrowers live in the secret places of quiet old houses; behind the mantelpiece, inside the harpsichord, under the kitchen clock. They own nothing, borrow everything, and think that human beings were invented just to do the dirty work. Arrietty's father, Pod, was an expert Borrower. He could scale curtains using a hatpin, and bring back a doll's teacup without breaking it. Girls weren't supposed to go borrowing but as Arrietty was an only child her father broke the rule, and then something happened which changed their lives. She made friends with the human boy living in the house..."Beautifully written, poetic and almost always alarming, the Borrowers have something very mysterious, sad and exciting about them". (Sunday Times). Mary Norton was born in 1903 and brought up in a house in Bedfordshire, which was to become the setting for The Borrowers.First published in 1952, The Borrowers was an immediate success, winning the Library Association's Carnegie Medal. There followed four more Borrowers books: The Borrowers Afield (1955), The Borrowers Afloat (1959), The Borrowers Aloft (1961) and The Borrowers Avenged (1982). Poor Stainless was the last Borrowers story Mary Norton wrote. She died in 1992. Also available in A Puffin Book: Goodnight Mister Tom and Back Home by Michelle Magorian; Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little And The Trumpet Of The Swan by E. B. White; The Borrowers by Mary Norton; Stig Of The Dump by Clive King; Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor; A Dog So Small by Philippa Pearce; Gobbolino by Ursula Moray Williams; Carrie's War by Nina Bawden; Mrs Frisby and The Rats Of Nimh by Richard C O'brien; A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'engle; The Cay by Theodore Taylor; Tarka The Otter by Henry Williamson; Watership Down by Richard Adams; Smith by Leon Garfield; The Neverending Story by Michael Ende; Annie by Thomas Meehan; and The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett.