• This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books, Single Copy Magazines, and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free. Here's how (restrictions apply)
• Over a hundred thousand books are eligible for our 4-for-3 Books and DVD promotion. How do I find more eligible items?
  
  

Buy Classic Fairy Tales: Enchanting Stories from Around the World and get Heidi (Children's Classics) at an additional 5% off Amazon.com's everyday low price.

Buy Together Today: $18.63

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell  (132)  $3.99

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett  (266)

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett  (135)  $6.99

Anne of Green Gables by Mary Claire Helldorfer  (1)

Little Women (Illustrated Junior Library) by Louisa May Alcott  (269)  $14.27

› Explore similar items : Books (46) Movies & TV (3)

Amazon.com
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. --Naomi Gesinger

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

First Sentence:
FROM the old and pleasantly situated village of Mayenfeld, a footpath winds through green and shady meadows to the foot of the mountains, which on this side look down from their stern and lofty heights upon the valley below. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
old fir trees Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Herr Sesemann, Little Swan, Frau Sesemann, Little Bear, Fraulein Rottenmeier, Cousin Dete, Miss Clara New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Search Inside This Book: