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The Secret World of Arrietty Picture Book

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Based on the beloved classic The Borrowers by Mary Norton. The picture book based on the movie!

Arrietty isn’t your ordinary fourteen-year-old girl--she's small enough to make her home under the floorboards of a typical house, “borrowing” what she and her family need from the giants in whose shadows they live. A young boy named Shawn befriends Arrietty, but when adults discover the Borrowers, Arrietty and Shawn must work together to save her family. Based on the classic novel series The Borrowers by Mary Norton, The Secret World of Arrietty is a delight for all ages.

Arrietty longs for adventures, but the world can be a dangerous place for one so small. She and her family live hidden beneath the floorboards of a house, borrowing the things they need from the humans who live inside. When Arrietty is discovered by a human boy named Shawn, her world is no longer secret and her family is in danger. If Arrietty can trust Shawn to protect her, she might discover a friendship she never imagined possible.

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 3, 2012

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Hiromasa Yonebayashi

14 books38 followers

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5 stars
82 (60%)
4 stars
33 (24%)
3 stars
17 (12%)
2 stars
3 (2%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 15 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for Elina Mäkitalo.
1,917 reviews60 followers
January 2, 2025
Ihana tarina pienestä lainailija tytöstä, joka asuu talon alla. Hän tutustuu retkillään ihmislapseen ja kaikenlaisia asioita tapahtuu hänen vanhemmilleenkin. Pidin kirjasta valtavasti - itse tarinasta sekä kuvista, jotka olivat selkeät ja erottuvat. En malta odottaa, että saan katsoa tämän elokuvana, koska innostuin hakemaan sen sellaisenakin.
Profile Image for Jaimie.
1,779 reviews26 followers
January 8, 2014
I haven't seen the gilm yet (cheating, I know), but I read the Borrowers when I was a kid and that basically superscedes anything. I was not overly impressed with this book though! Like most of the other Ghibli comics, the effect of taking screen stills and adding text comes off as half-assed at best. Assuming that the film has a similar stylistic tone as the other Ghibli productions, the book totally missed the subtlety of the filmmaking and leaves the reader feeling like they're missing some of the story.
Profile Image for gloriabluestocking.
236 reviews10 followers
January 30, 2018
5 stars for delightful pictures and a moving, action-packed and sweet story (though it's been written simply for younger readers). I found the picture order a little out of order, somewhat jilting the experience, so I'll call this 4.5 stars.
38 reviews1 follower
July 30, 2014
I like how Arrietty sometimes feels like there is more to her life than sewing purses and cracking crackers.I think she really reflects how everybody feels at some point of their lives.My mom thinks the artwork is really beautiful.
81 reviews24 followers
March 30, 2019
jo... q bonito.. q agridulce...

ya desde el principio empece a suponer q el y ella no podrían acabar juntos... ella enanita y el humano...

q triste q el se este muerindo, q tenga una operación de corazon q muy probablemente no salga bien.... por desgracia, en el final no desvelan nada de eso, no nos dice si el llego a sobrevivir...
al final se tienen que mudar y abandonar el lugar acompañados de otro diminuto (spiller) que apareció a la mitad de la historia y que nunca tuvo mucha importancia. Todo esto desemboca en una emotiva despedida entre Arrietty y su amigo.

me deja calmada que Spiller este con ella, q sea un buen compañero, y se ve q a el ella le gusta ...
q moniiiis

pero Sho tiene un lugar en mi corazoncito....

Arriety para mi, de las pelis q he visto de GHILBI, es de las mas monas y guapas... es idealll y muy valiente..!! ME HA CAIDO GENIALLLL

El final me pone triste, es algo agridulce, por lo q he comentado antes... tenia la esperanza de q pudieran vivir todos en la casita de muñecas... pero esta peli es algo mas seria, con el tema de la enfermedad de el, y el tener q irse de ellos. mucho me temo q seguirán sin confiar en los humanos, por lo menos los padres... Arrriety se q si confiara mas en ellos... pero jo.. q cruda..
Profile Image for Brian Wilkerson.
Author 5 books30 followers
January 15, 2022
This is a sturdy hardcover book with gorgeous illustrations. Would you expect anything less from something adapted from a Studio Ghibli production?

Even in book form, the art is enchanting. The landscape is beautiful and the emotions of the characters clear. I think it does a fair job of representing the movie's story. It was a delight to read.

There is one thing I didn't like, and that was the way the pictures are arranged in some pages. This book has both text and pictures arranged in the style of a comic, many of them sharing one page in a sequence. It was occasionally difficult to follow the flow of the pictures together with the text.
Profile Image for Sapna.
Author 1 book2 followers
October 29, 2021
Everything about this book was good. Illustrations are surreal. Reading this book was almost like watching the movie again.
Profile Image for Rosie Angel.
105 reviews
January 21, 2022
This art book is lovely, but like the movie, left me wanting something more.
25 reviews
February 18, 2017
Arrietty is a borrower. She is a teeny tiny girl who lives in a teeny tiny house with her mother and father. She “borrows” from the human beans when they are not looking, or rather when she thinks they aren’t looking. One day a human bean does look. A human bean by the name of Shawn does look, and he catches her. Shawn insists he won’t hurt her and that he only wants to help, but is that really the case? Read the book to find out.
Prior to reading this book, I had already seen the film, so relative to the movie, the book seemed a bit crude. The stills from the movie in the book simply don’t capture the same beauty and artistic quality that the film has. The words to go along with the pictures are enough to give the reader a sense of what is happening, but a more full grasp of the story can be acquired by watching the film.
In terms of being a graphic novel, the book was mediocre. The stills were dispersed quite randomly on the pages which is not very visually appealing. The blank spaces were filled with many words which can be attributed to the fact that this is a picturebook and graphic novel fusion, but the font chosen was so basic, it took away from the fairytale quality of the story. The use of speech bubbles was interesting as some speech could be found in paragraph form yet some was also found in speech bubbles. Also very interesting to say the least, was the use of onomatopoeia within the pictures. The sound words were written in red arial font which could not have seemed more out of place. The movie is able to provide the viewer with real sounds rather than awkward red letters sprawled across an image. Overall, it would be much more of an experience to see this story told as a movie rather than a book.
Profile Image for Elizabeth Periale.
Author 10 books4 followers
March 25, 2012
http://xoxoxoe.blogspot.com/2012/02/s...

"Planned by Hayao Miyazaki and using much of the shooting script as its text, this delightful book incorporates stills from the film as its illustrations. Its large-scale font is easy to read, and the many images keep the pages turning and young minds involved in the story."
Profile Image for Pamela.
895 reviews8 followers
December 19, 2012
I have heard of this movie, but didn't realize it was based on the borrowers till I read it. Graphics look like they were pulled right from the movie. Text is very simple. It reads like an early reader, but format is like picture book. The Borrowers is very popular at my school right now. Some kids would find this more accessible, I'm sure.
470 reviews3 followers
May 28, 2012
Great introduction to the Arrietty story. Enjoyed the read and the illustrations.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 16 reviews