She doesn’t get rescued but actually does the rescuing through her consistent kindness, faithfulness, and love. What made me love this book more than the animation was the deep relationships and the inner strength Heidi exhibits. All the pagan elements from the cartoon I grew up with were not in the book at all. This is a very beautiful book and extremely Christian. Many relationships and hurts are healed, and Heidi is given many blessings in the end. When Clara finally comes to visit, Heidi’s Grandfather treats her very well to the point of bringing her back to full health, to the astonishment of her father and his doctor friend.

Her Grandfather renews his faith in God, and Heidi forces Peter to learn how to read. Heidi has a warm homecoming with her Grandfather and Peter. He promises that Clara can come to visit. When Clara’s father comes home from his travels, he and his friend, a doctor, decide Heidi should go home. I hadn’t expected this to be an overtly Christian book! Still, Heidi becomes more and more homesick to the point of having physical symptoms. They have many misadventures, and Heidi comes to a sincere Christian faith through Clara’s grandmother. Heidi is horrified at leaving her Grandfather and the mountain, but she does become good friends with Clara. There is an argument again between the aunt and the Grandfather, but Heidi ends up going. After a couple of years of this, the aunt returns to take Heidi back to the city to be a companion for a wealthy family’s daughter, Clara, who is sickly and wheelchair-bound. In the winter, she goes to school in the village at the base of the mountain and does well. Heidi is delighted with her life on the mountain. He also sends her each day with an older boy named Peter, who tends the goats. He is very kind to her but a little distant. He creates a hay bed for Heidi in the loft and gives her goat cream and fresh bread to eat for most meals. He is not really super gruff but just a hermit who lives off the land. In the end, the Grandfather takes Heidi in. The aunt and the Grandfather have an argument at the very beginning about what is the best place for a child to grow up. Heidi is about an orphaned girl who is being taken to live with her Grandfather in the Swiss alps by her aunt, who works in the city. In the end, I discovered I liked the book better. I watched that cartoon over and over again. This is NOT like the book at all!Īt first, I was disappointed. I loved how Peter, the goat herder, and his animals came to recuse her from the city. I loved her grumpy Grandfather, who softens up because of her. In my childhood, I adored a cartoon version of Heidi that had singing characters and fairytale mountain creatures.

Johanna spyri novel