Heidi

by Sally Grindley (Adapter), Johanna Spyri, Pamela Venus (Illustrator)

This retelling of Heidi's story is charming and accessible to younger readers. Heidi has come to live with her grandfather in the mountains. Everything is new and exciting -- the wind in the fir trees, the pretty Alpine flowers, Peter and his goats, and most of all, Grandfather. Life on the mountain is beautiful, but it doesn't last forever. Heidi is taken to the big city of Frankfurt, where she becomes a companion to a little girl called Clara. How different life in this rich household is! Heidi does not know how to behave in the city and longs to go back to her mountain home. A classic story of a child's growing understanding of the world, Johanna Spyri's Heidi is especially engaging in this Young Classic edition because children can see what Heidi's life was really like. Photography sets the scene without intruding on the story and brings Heidi to life for a new generation of children.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books

64 pages, Paperback

Published June 7, 2000

About the author

I came into children's books originally as Editorial Director of a nationwide children's book club, though I had written and directed a children's play while a student at Sussex University, which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. I wrote my first two children's picture books in 1984 and was lucky enough that Anthony Browne wanted to illustrate the second - Knock Knock Who's There? It was published in 1985, is still going strong today and is one of my most successful.

Shhh! was published in 1991 and has known great success in France/Belgium in particular (close on 300,000 copies sold). It's success in the UK - it won the Children's Book Award - was hampered by the liquidation of its original publisher.

I became a full-time author in 1995 and now have some 150+ titles published, the most recent being L'Histoire du Soir in France, Belgium and Italy.

Feather Wars, published in 2003, was my first sortie into young fiction and was followed by the very successful Spilled Water, which has been published in some ten different languages and is very popular in schools as a class reader. It won the Nestle Smarties Gold Award (and I wound up being a 'Pointless' answer on the back of it!) Broken Glass came next and was a Sunday Times Book of the Week.

I'm currently working on picture books again and have plans to illustrate one of my own in the not too distant future - watch this space!

Reviews

[Keri Rohr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heidi is a wonderful historical fiction book for grades 4-5. Heidi is set in the Swiss Alps and in Frankfurt, Germany during the time of the depression. I absolutely loved reading this book and reading about the kind little girl named Heidi. I like how the book had little texts on the side to further explain some pieces of the text that refer back to the time that the story is set.

[Ramona]

This book has good word choice as well as organization. The story flows in a logical sequence. It has lots of key details that helps with the story. Word choice helps in understanding the characters' expression. The story is about a young girl who is cared for by her grandfather. The main theme is love. However there are other themes such as nature and simplicity. It is a great book for upper elementary students. This book is great for building on character traits in understanding the characters in the story and understanding their roles as the story progresses, comprehension skills, cause and effect. Word choice also helps with expressing feelings, description of character and places. Conventions of Standard English is also prominent. Grades 3 - 7; reading level: 3.8