Summer Reading - The Borrowers

We're in the first week of our summer break and to kick things off, E, R, and I are reading the imaginative, whimsical and beloved book The Borrowers by Mary Norton. It's the first in a series of Borrowers books and I'm especially loving it because along with E and R, it's my maiden voyage into the Borrower world!

During the school year, most if not all of the books we read (fictional and non-fictional) are both obviously and subliminally educational. They are Newbury and Caldecott Award Winning types of books with depths of historical, geographical, literary, relational and character treasures to explore. I LOVE these books. But I also love the idea of taking the opportunity that is summer to read through some simpler types of books. Not simpler as in less special. Not simpler as in less well written.

I'm talking about stories in which the goal of being engaged is exactly that. To be engaged. Not to necessarily try and glean anything in particular, educational or not, from the book. But reading for the purpose of enjoyment. Imagining the world the author offers, conjuring up images of the interesting, perhaps quirky or often memorable characters, laughing when something's funny, pausing when something's sad, wondering and questioning about why a character did or didn't do a certain something, placing yourself within the pages as your heart and mind allow.

This is an important goal, I think, for those award-winning books as well, those more outright educationally-minded stories we gladly engage with during the school year. But there's something about not having to learn anything from a book, including with your kids. But rather, existing together inside of it, just enjoying it, as you go.

With that in mind, E, R, and I have stepped happily into the Borrowers. Six-year-old E could read this by herself, but I wanted the adventure to be shared by all three of us so, for that reason, I'm reading the book aloud. Perhaps like your kids, mine need something to do with their wiggles while I read, so besides having quiet toys on hand for them to fiddle with (like legos, blocks, snap circuits and play-doh), I printed out these Borrowers coloring pages as well.

I also prepared an especially fun activity for them to do one morning as I read. If you know the story, you know that the Borrowers are tiny people who live under the house of "normal-sized" humans and everything they have - their furniture, food, clothes, etc. - is borrowed from the people who live above. So to give the kids an opportunity to engage with the book in a more hands-on way, they crafted Borrowers houses of their own!

All I did to prepare this activity was to gather a bunch of little things I had laying around, got out some glue and told them ready, set, go!

The brown boxes you see above served as the Borrowers' houses. I found them for a couple of dollars each at our local craft store. You could, instead, use a shoebox, you could tape some card stock together to make the basic shape of a room or house, really anything would work.

Some of the items the kids had to choose from included stamps (which, in the book, the Borrowers use as paintings on their walls), corks, spools, pom poms, bottle caps, feathers, paper clips, jingle bells, scrabble tiles, buttons, popsicle sticks, clothes pins, felt, yarn and ribbon. It was fun to watch what E and R came up with. Poms became chairs, spools turned into tables, clothes pins were seesaws, feathers served as beds. I loved to watch their minds and hands at work!

We still have half the book to go but reading with my kids - for the pure enjoyment of reading with my kids - is, I have a feeling, going to be the best part of summer.

If you've read the Borrowers, or decide to join us in their world, please do let us know!

Happy summer and happy reading!