The tiny Clock family settle happily in a model village, until a greedy couple kidnap them to put them on show
Escape by balloon
After their long adventures, Pod, Homily and Arrietty Clock, the little people who live by borrowing from humans, find a wonderful new home in a miniature model village built by a kind retired railwayman. For a while life is peaceful. But a rival couple who run a competing model village have spotted the Borrowers, and they have a plan: capture them, lock them in an attic and put them on display. Trapped and watched, the family must invent a daring way out.
Who will enjoy it
Children who loved The Borrowers and The Borrowers Afield, readers who enjoy clever problem-solving, and families looking for a gentle classic.
What you will get
A gentle, inventive classic in which a family of tiny people is captured by a greedy couple and must devise an astonishing escape from an attic prison.
The Borrowers Aloft Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Children’s Books · Tiny people · Daring escape · English village
Length
176 pages · ≈ 5 h
More about this book
Norton's great gift is making the Borrowers' small world feel completely real, and this book adds a delightful new setting: a model village, built to scale, where the family can for once live in a proper house. The descriptions of the miniature streets and buildings are charming, and Arrietty's delight in them is infectious.
The second half turns into a tense prison story. Locked in an attic for months, the family watches the seasons pass and gradually plans its escape, and Pod's ingenuity, Homily's worries and Arrietty's bravery are all drawn with care. The escape itself is one of the most memorable scenes in the series, imaginative and satisfying.
The pace is slow in places, especially during the long captivity, and readers new to the series will miss some of the background. The villains are fairly simple, and some period details may need explaining to modern children. As a quiet, clever adventure about family and freedom, it holds up well. The balloon, assembled from scraps by people no taller than a pencil, is the kind of image that stays with young readers, and the final chapter leaves the family's future intriguingly open. About 176 pages in the Puffin paperback; another printing lists 168.
The Borrowers
The Borrowers Afield
The Indian in the Cupboard
Stuart Little
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Where the Red Fern Grows
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Ramona and Her Mother
Ballet Shoes
On the Banks of Plum Creek
My Side of the Mountain
The Velveteen Rabbit