The Borrowers Aloft by Mary Norton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Description:
Life in the miniature village at Little Fordham seemed ideal for “the Borrowers,” the family of pencil-sized people, especially for Homily, who had always longed for a proper house with proper furnishings. Then Arrietty committed the indiscretion of making friends with a human being, Miss Menzies, telling her all about their secret world. Before Pod or Homily was aware of what was happening, the three of them were kidnaped by a greedy couple, Mr and Mrs Platter, who owned a rival miniature village in which they were going to exhibit the tiny trio as a live attraction the following spring. Imprisoned in the Platters’ attic through the winter, the Borrowers’ initial despair gave way to plans for escape. There was not much hope of success until Arrietty, poring over old issues of the Illustrated London News, discovered the article of ballooning.
Review:
The fourth book in the series.
Honestly, while the story was fine, I did not enjoy this one as much as the others. The main reason is because we did not join the borrowers until Chapter 10.
Nine chapters to set up the scenario? Nine chapters without the main characters? *shakes head*
I didn’t care about the ‘big people’ or how the two small villages came about. The nine chapters could have been condensed considerably. I began reading the series for the borrowers and expect to read ‘their’ story. I felt cheated.
Once we finally got back to the borrowers, there was an excessive amount of time describing exactly how they were going to escape. No, I didn’t enjoy this book. It felt like a filler; apart from the kidnapping, nothing exciting really happened until the escape.
I can’t say you shouldn’t read it because I haven’t finished the last book yet. I really have nothing else to say.