The story of a family of miniature people who live in a quiet, out-of-the-way country house and who tried never to be seen by human beings.

Together in one volume, here are complete versions of Mary Norton’s five beloved bestselling books about the tiny, stouthearted Borrowers. Put this volume into the hands of little readers—or of any reader who delights in classic adventure. Includes complete editions of The Borrowers, The Borrowers Afield, The Borrowers Afloat, The Borrowers Aloft, and The Borrowers Avenged. These editions include the original charming black-and-white illustrations by Beth and Joe Krush. A enchanting and enduring children's classic, The Borrowers is the award-winning tale of three tiny people who are big heroes. The Clock family—Homily, Pod, and their fourteen-year-old daughter, Arrietty—are tiny people who live underneath the kitchen floor of an English manor. All their minuscule home furnishings, from postage stamp paintings to champagne cork chairs, are “borrowed” from the “human beans” who tromp around loudly above them. All is well until Pod is spotted upstairs by a human boy! Can the Clocks stay nested safely in their beloved hidden home, or will they be forced to flee? The four subsequent books are equally charming and appealing, perfect for independent readers as well as shared reading with younger children. The Borrowers Afield: Driven from their home in the big house, Pod, Homily, and Arrietty take up life in a boot. The Borrowers Afloat: Uprooted once again, the little people journey down a drain, live briefly in a teakettle, and are swept away in a flood. “As irresistible as its predecessors.”—Booklist The Borrowers Aloft: Imprisoned in an attic by a greedy couple who want to use them as performers, the Borrowers escape by balloon. The Borrowers Avenged: Pod, Homily, and Arrietty escape from the Platters’ attic and set off to an old rectory to begin life anew.

Escaping from an attic where they had been held captive over the long, dark winter, a family of tiny people sets up house in an old rectory. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

“The Borrowers Afield is beautifully written and engrossing, even suspenseful . . . like the best of children’s books, this is really a book for all ages.” —Tor.com Driven out of their cozy house by the rat catcher, the Borrowers find themselves homeless. Worse, they are lost and alone in a frightening new world: the outdoors. Nearly everything outside—cows, moths, field mice, cold weather—is a life-threatening danger for the tiny Borrowers. But as they bravely journey across country in search of a new home and learn how to survive in the wild, Pod, Homily, and their daughter, Arrietty, discover that the world beyond their old home has more joy, drama, and people than they’d ever imagined. An ALA Notable Book “Readers who found Mary Norton’s The Borrowers just about perfect may approach this one with the nervous premonition that it couldn’t possibly be as good. It is, though—and in some ways even better.” —The New York Times Book Review “This book, like its predecessor, is a lovely thing . . . The Borrowers are fascinating not just because they are tiny creatures in a large world, but because they are people.” —The Horn Book “Mary Norton is a genius.” —Mademoiselle

Imprisoned in an attic by a greedy couple who want to use them as performers, the Borrowers escape by balloon.

In this delightful, funny, and moving first novel, a librarian and a young boy obsessed with reading take to the road. Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten- year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan. Desperate to save him from Pastor Bob and the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the man who seems to be on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?

On the day they first meet in a city playground, Deborah Laidlaw lends Toby Ruben a book called Trolley Girl, the memoir of a forgotten trolley strike in the 1920s, written by the sister of a fiery Jewish revolutionary who played an important, ultimately tragic role in the events. Young mothers with babies, Toby and Deborah become instant friends. It is a relationship that will endure for decades—through the vagaries of marriage, career, and child-rearing, through heated discussions of politics, ethics, and life—until an insurmountable argument takes the two women down divergent paths. But in the aftermath of crisis and sorrow, it is a borrowed book, long set aside and forgotten, that will unite Toby and Deborah once again.

Finding himself in a land peopled with fairy tale characters, James attempts to help Princess Dulcibel who is destined to marry a toad after her ball falls into the well.