Johanna Spyri's classic story of a young orphan sent to live with her grumpy grandfather in the Swiss Alps is retold in it's entirety in this beautifully bound hardcover edition. Heidi has charmed and intrigued readers since it's original publication in 1880. Much more than a children's story, the narrative is also a lesson on the precarious nature of freedom, a luxury too often taken for granted. Heidi almost loses her liberty as she is ripped away from the tranquility of the mountains to tend to a sick cousin in the city. Happily, all's well that ends well, and the reader is left with only warm, fuzzy thoughts. Spryi's story will never grow wearisome--and this is a very appealing edition.


From Publishers Weekly
This truncated retelling of orphan Heidi's simple life in the Swiss Alps and her sojourn in the big city seems almost as indebted to the Shirley Temple film as to Johanna Spyri's 1880 novel. Krupinski's (A New England Scrapbook) heroine mimics Temple, curls, button nose and all, though she lacks the actress's expressive smile and gestures. Similarly blank-faced characters contrast with Krupinski's serene, lushly idealized landscape paintings: the people seem like wax dolls, but the glowing blankets of flowers make the Alps heaven on earth. The text emphasizes the sensual joys of fresh goat's milk, fir trees "with their piney scent," Heidi's sweet-smelling bed in her grandfather's hay loft, etc., but that is its only demonstrable strength. Both Heidi's relationship with her grandfather and the idealized subplot about wheelchair-bound Klara's learning to walk are woodenly described; little space is given to dialogue and even less to Heidi's emotions. The plot, too, is severely condensed: "Many more good things happened after that day." The book succeeds as a portrayal of the joys of mountain life, but otherwise fails to do justice to Spyri's story of a girl's courage and persistence. Ages 5-9. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 3. In telescoping Spyri's 300-page novel into a picture book, Krupinski puts Heidi in charge of telling her story. The efficient first-person narrative is well served by crisply detailed watercolor illustrations depicting Grandfather's house, the Swiss mountainside, and the people and goats who live there. The austere depictions of Heidi's detainment in the city in Klara's house contrast well with the lush mountain scenes. Pages are awash in accurately rendered alpine flowers. The children are winsome; Heidi resembles Shirley Temple. Youngsters who crave the full emotional story will no doubt need to be led to original versions, such as that illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith (Morrow, 1996), but Krupinski has created a fine introduction.?Susan Hepler, Alexandria City Public Schools, VACopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Ages 6^-9. With pretty illustrations of idyllic mountain scenes, Krupinski retells Spyri's classic story in picture-book form. The bright, collage-style illustrations in gouache and colored pencil are stiff and decorative, and the shortened version telescopes the 300-page novel into a few pages, so that much of the emotional impact is lost ("Soon after I arrived, I grew homesick" ). Why not let children wait a few years and enjoy Spyri's story, with or without the pictures? Hazel Rochman





Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German


Download Description
Johanna Spyri's classic tale of a young girl sent to live with her grumpy grandfather in the Swiss Alps


Card catalog description
A Swiss orphan is heartbroken when she must leave her beloved grandfather and their happy home in the mountains to go to school and to care for an invalid girl in the city. Illustrated notes throughout the text explain the historical background of the story.


From the Publisher
Orphaned at an early age and taken in by her young aunt Dete, Heidi--short for Adelheid--is soon in the way. Dete has a new and better job where Heidi is not welcome, so the child must live with her curmudgeon of a grandfather high on the Alm Mountain in the Swiss Alps.Everyone calls him the Alm-Uncle because he never comes down to the village, even in the coldest winter, and he's developed a reputation as an evil, godless old hermit. But Heidi soon finds that things are not always what others say they are, makes friends with the Alm-Uncle, and happily runs wild in the glorious mountains with the goat boy, Peter, and his goats.Suddenly Dete appears again, and Heidi finds herself confined in a stone house in a stone city where she is expected to be companion to the invalid Klara. Dete sees this as a great opportunity for Heidi, one that will provide her with an education and polish. But, bitterly unhappy away from her grandfather and the outdoor life she has grown to love, Heidi at last makes her way back to the Alm. How Klara finally comes to the mountains as well, and the surprising events that follow, form the heartwarming ending to a story that has been loved for generations by children all over the world.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

First published in 1880, Heidi introduces young readers and listeners to one of the most charming young heroines ever.

This beautiful, stirring novel tells of five-year-old Heidi, an orphan sent to live high up in the mountains with her cantankerous grandfather. Sweet-natured Heidi soon wins her grandfather's heart and makes friends with the lively young goatherd, Peter. Her newfound happiness ends quickly, however, when Heidi's aunt, Dete, takes her off to the city of Frankfurt to be a companion to a sickly child. Finally Heidi is restored to her Alpine home. And when her new friend, Clara, joins her in the mountains, Heidi's innocent charm and the majestic beauty of the Alps combine to work a healing miracle.

This edition of Heidi features ten gorgeous color plates and twenty-three black-and-white drawings by Jessie Willcox Smith. Smith's sumptuous pictures capture all the joy of this beloved classic, from the splendor of Switzerland's mighty Alps to the subdued drama of Clara's upper-class Frankfurt home to the exhilarating pleasure of an Alpine sleigh ride.

Now a whole new generation of young readers can fall under the enchanting spell that Heidi has cast for more than a century

FROM THE CRITICS

School Library Journal