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The Daily Insight

What is The Borrowers about?

Author

Rachel Newton

Updated on February 28, 2026

What is The Borrowers about?

The Borrowers tells the story of a family of little people who live beneath the kitchen floor of a deteriorating English country home. Pod and Homily Clock care for their adventurous daughter Arrietty by borrowing what they need, and a little more, from the human “beans” who live up above.

What is The Borrowers based on?

Mary Norton
The screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, was based on the 1952 novel The Borrowers by Mary Norton, an English author of children’s books, about a family of tiny people who live secretly in the walls and floors of a typical household, borrowing items from humans to survive.

What is the problem in The Borrowers?

The Conflict Nobody knows where the Clock family lives until they come out underneath the kitchen and into another place inside and outside the house gathering or you could say borrowing the “human beans” items.

Is Mary Norton still alive?

Deceased (1903–1992)
Mary Norton/Living or Deceased

What did the Borrower family names represent?

The Borrowers are miniature people who live below a clock in a house located in England. Homily, Pod and Arrietty are their names. Pod goes ‘Borrowing’ for items, Homily does the usual motherhood jobs and Arrietty becomes even more curious about the human being life each and every day.

What did Mrs driver think the borrowers were?

Hypocrite. Mrs. Driver is villainous not only because she treats good people and borrowers poorly, but she’s also got prejudice coming out her ears. She writes the borrowers off as thieves and sics dogs, cats, a rat-catcher, and even the police on them.

What did Mrs driver think The Borrowers were?

Who is telling the story in The Borrowers?

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Mrs. May is telling the story at all as we get so invested in Homily, Pod, the Boy, and Arrietty’s adventures in the house. Mrs. May’s voice drops out entirely in favor of delivering narrative nuggets of awesomeness that allow us to get close to our favorite tiny folks.

Who wrote the children’s novel The Borrowers?

The Borrowers/Authors

How many borrowers movies are there?

The peace and quiet of rural life is turned topsy-turvy for everyone when a boy (Dennis Larson) visiting from the city discovers a family of tiny people, The Borrowers (Eddie Albert, Tammy Grimes, Karen Pearson), living beneath the floorboards of a Victorian country home! Includes seven bonus films.

What did The Borrowers borrow?

Mrs May tells Kate about the Borrowers: miniature human-like creatures who live unseen in houses and “borrow” such items from the “human beans” that live there. Arrietty Clock lives with her parents Pod and Homily under the floor beneath a grandfather clock (Borrowers take their surnames from their living place).

How tall is a borrower?

Borrowers do exactly as their name says. They borrow things from humans and keep them for themselves. Borrowers are, on average, 5 inches tall. Everything in our human world is gigantic for them.