“…Borrower’s don’t steal."

“Except from human beings,” said the boy.

Arrietty burst out laughing; she laughed so much that she had to hide her face in the primrose. “Oh dear,” she gasped with tears in her eyes, “you are funny!” She stared upward at his puzzled face. “Human beans are for Borrowers - like bread’s for butter!”

Well that’s a wonderful, fun book. Tiny people that live under the floor and steal Borrow whatever they need to survive/thrive from the ‘human beans’ that live in the house above.

It’s a cute story. I love the characters, especially the Borrowers (a tiny teen is still a teen, and the mother’s fear for her daughter and father’s providing for the family hit home), although the full sized people are great to love and hate and get in the way as well.

The writing and world building is solid as well. There are constant mentions of things being reused in ways we’d never intend by people far far smaller than us. It really does feel like a real giant tiny world.

I think my favorite moment in the entire book was when Arietty meets the boy for the first time. Two children, living at once in the same and far far different worlds.

Well worth the read. I look forward to the sequels.

“Mrs. May looked back at her.

“Kate,” she said after a moment, “stories never really end. They can go on and on and on. It’s just that sometimes, at a certain point, one stops telling them.”