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‘We need the literature of other countries to expand our
horizons and stimulate our ideas. Without it, we are not only
diminished, we are starved’
(The Times, Magnus Linklater 29/06/05)

Heidi
by Johanna Spryri
Age Range: 9-11
This translation was first published in 1956. Orphaned, five-year-old Heidi is take by her Aunt Detie to live with her grandfather (known as 'Uncle Alp') in his remote hut high in the Swiss alps. Heidi quickly learns to love her new life with him, spending the summer days roaming the mountain slopes with Peter the goatherd and in winter visiting Peter’s blind grandmother.
Three years later, Detie returns to remove Heidi from her grandfather’s care, taking her to live in Frankfurt with the Sesemann family. Heidi becomes desperately homesick and hates living in a town. Her country ways and ignorance of etiquette and city life reduces the household to total chaos although she does befriend Mr Sesemann's daughter Clara - "an invalid who spent all her days in a wheel-chair".
Eventually, Clara’s father arranges for Heidi to return home to her grandfather. Clara goes to stay with them in the mountains and with Heidi and Peter’s help, she slowly recovers her strength and learns to walk again. Written in 1880 this complete and unabridged classic has stood the test of time, retaining much of its charm today.
Book Reviews
When Heidi moves to the mountains to live with Grandfather, she brings joy to everyone she meets with her infectious enthusiasm for life and her kind nature. Alongside Peter the Goatherd and Grandfather, Heidi spends her days roaming free in the Alps, enjoying an idyllic childhood. But then her aunt returns and forces Heidi to move to Frankfurt. How will Heidi survive away from her beloved Grandfather and freedom in the beautiful Alps she calls home?
Heidi is a heart-warming tale that has deservedly become a childrens’ classic. The uplifting spirit of the story and the hope and optimism that Heidi displays through out the novel really enthuse the reader and bring the story to life. Every situation that Heidi comes across is an opportunity for fun, friendship and often a chance for Heidi to gently set a good example to other characters and readers. For anyone reading this fearing that Heidi is perhaps a preachy, moralistic tale, it is a measure of Johanna Spyri’s writing that she works the educational, improving characteristics so well into the story that they are not obvious and are simply absorbed along with the rest of the book.
Spyri creates such a vivid, beautiful tale that it is very easy to believe that one is half way up a mountain, enjoying the rich, creamy milk of the goats or that you really have met the boy with the monkey and climbed to the top of the tower in Frankfurt. It is also to Spyri’s credit that whilst she creates scenes of great fun and pleasure, she does not shy away from using her talent to gently examine the harder, sadder aspects of Heidi’s life. We see the poverty (gently described) in which Peter and his family live, the sadness of Clara’s family history, Grandfather Alp’s past and the vulnerability that Heidi’s orphan status gives her. Whilst none of the scenes in the novel are distressing, we value Heidi’s pleasure and happiness more because we see that she has known sadness and seen it in those around her. It is the actions she takes when faced with illness, misery, poverty or home sickness that make Heidi a rounded, believable and likeable character rather than a sickeningly twee ‘good girl’ who sets an almost unattainable example of nauseating niceness. Heidi has an equally well written host of friends, too. The other main characters, Grandfather, Peter and Clara are all characters with hopes and fears, happiness and sadness and it is easy to become involved with the story of Heidi and care what happens.
Despite being a ‘classic’ this book doesn’t date. It is a fascinating look at a simple, beautiful way of life that seems an eternal idyll rather than a look back in time and Spyri’s writing still reads easily and draws the reader in. It is very easy to see why Heidi is still a relevant and popular book; it is well written, has a great warmth about it that means people re-read it and has a main character who puts a smile on your face through the simplicity of being happy. It’s enough to make anyone want to go and live high up on a mountain in a hut with some goats.
Abby | 23/02/2012,18:36:52























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































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