Freedom to roam in the high Swiss Alps brings great happiness in this story of Heidi and her unusual childhood high up in the Swiss Alps. When Heidi’s parents die, she is sent to live with her grandfather high up in the mountains. Everyone in the village is frightened of grandfather but Heidi soon gets used to his gruff ways and loves his simple way of life tending the goats. Summer and winter, Heidi helps her grandfather and plays outdoors, sometimes with Peter who herds his goats nearby. When interfering adults try to make changes, including taking Heidi away from her beloved home in the mountains, Heidi soon shows the restoring and healing powers of her special childhood.
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When Heidi, a cheerful 5-year-old orphan, comes to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps, she brings a bright ray of sunshine into the lives of the people around her. Young Peter, a goatherd, shares her love of nature, and his blind grandmother delights in the little girl's bubbling personality. Even Heidi's surly and hermit-like grandfather, the old Alm-Uncle, finds his long-lost grandchild a source of immense pleasure.A few years later, when she is forced to go to Frankfurt to serve as a companion for Klara, a well-to-do but sickly girl, Heidi must leave her beloved mountains and friends behind — an experience that proves highly traumatic to the innocent and sensitive little girl. But her return home and a visit from Klara result in magical moments that will leave young readers thoroughly captivated by this heartwarming tale of an unforgettable child and her effect on the people around her.Complete and unabridged, this story "e;for children and those who love children"e; will thrill today's youngsters just as it has delighted generations of young readers and listeners since its original publication in 1881.
Johanna Louise Heusser, the fourth of six children of Meta Schweizer (1797-1876) and Johan Jakob Heusser (1783-1859), physician, was born on 12 June 1827 in the village of Herzil, nestled in the Alps of Switzerland. She went to school and was tutored at home, then studied languages and piano in Zürich. In 1852 she married lawyer Bernhard Spyri (1821-1884) with whom she'd have a son, Bernard Diethelm (1855-1884). The couple moved to Zürich to a home overlooking the lake where she wrote her first novel, A Leaf on Vrony's Grave, which was published in 1871.
Freedom to roam in the high Swiss Alps brings great happiness in this story of Heidi and her unusual childhood high up in the Swiss Alps. When Heidi’s parents die, she is sent to live with her grandfather high up in the mountains. Everyone in the village is frightened of grandfather but Heidi soon gets used to his gruff ways and loves his simple way of life tending the goats. Summer and winter, Heidi helps her grandfather and plays outdoors, sometimes with Peter who herds his goats nearby. When interfering adults try to make changes, including taking Heidi away from her beloved home in the mountains, Heidi soon shows the restoring and healing powers of her special childhood.
