The Borrowers Aloft

The Borrowers Aloft is Mary Norton's fourth installment in this captivating series about small people who lead hidden lives borrowing from "human beans". Pod, Homily, and Arrietty Clock are now living in the miniature village of Little Fordham, built in the back garden of a retired railroadman and maintained by the eccentric but very kind Miss Menzies. Once again Arrietty, who is now sixteen and learning more and more about the world, becomes a bridge between the worlds of borrowers and human beans. Unfortunately, another human couple with a rival miniature village have spotted the borrowers, and one night they kidnap the Clock family and hide them away with plans to put them on permanent display as prisoners. Mary Norton's powers of description and her ability to imagine the ingenious methods the borrowers use to survive and eventually escape their predicament are as enchanting as ever. Although the world of the human beans impinges a bit too long on this story, so that it seems to take forever to actually find out what the borrowers themselves are up to, this is another fine story. It was apparently written with the intent to make it the last in the series, but fortunately a fifth installment eventually arrived.

Being 13, I'm pretty picky, but this book was awsome! It's so in my shopping cart! I love how the Clocks are so smart, they can make everything out of anything! This book really appeased me, because I love models and mineature things, an the thought of moving, living, mineature people is so thrilling! I really liked how they made a hot-air balloon out of a strawberry basket, a fountain pen, and a plastic (or toy, as it says in the book) balloon. Soooo coool! I'm SO reading the other books (I've already read the book and seen the movie "The Borrowers").

I liked this book a lot. I like to read about how resourceful the Borrowers are when they use stuff humans don't need or misplace. It had really nice pictures, too. I recommend this book to kids five years and older.

In this, the fourth book in the Borrowers series (after The Borrowers, The Borrowers Afield and The Borrowers Afloat), the Clocks have moved into Little Fordham, and are starting their new life. Unfortunately, unknown to them, the greedy Mr. Platter has built a rival model village. Having seen the Borrowers, he kidnaps them to add them to his own model. How can such small people escape from a prison built by such huge human "beans"?Ah, Mary Norton (1903-92) was a genius! Her Borrower stories are an excellent combination of suspenseful adventure and heartwarming drama. My children and I love this book, and highly recommend it to you!

As a child in the 1950's, I read the original Borrowers in 4th grade. I read and re-read the one in the school library, til school closed for the summer. As luck would have it, I found the book and it's subsequent additions that summer in a book store. They were the only thing I ever BEGGED my mother to buy me. I took home The Borowers, The Borrowers Afield, and The Borrowers Afloat, and I still know parts of them by heart. When I was 18, the Borrowers Aloft came out, and my mother sent it to me at college. I was 36 when the Avenged came out, and I RAN to the bookstore. The stories are as fresh today as the first time I read them. I'm now in my 50's, and I can't imagine a life without Homily, Pod and Arriety Clock. Homily who is courageous, even though she'd rather not be. Pod, who is a simple man, taking care of his family. And Arriety, ready for life, ready for adventure, a young Victorian Feminist, if there ever was one. She taught me that a girl could be anything she wanted to be. They bravely faced a daunting world, and they're only 6 inches tall. I now own well over a thousand books, and really believe that it was this small family that lead me to my love of reading.