Heidi
Few children’s books have stayed as loved as Johanna Spyri’s tale of the orphan sent to live with her gruff grandfather in a hut high in the Swiss Alps. Heidi thrives there among the goats, the mountain air, and her friend Peter the goatherd, until she is taken away to Frankfurt to keep company with Clara, a wealthy girl who cannot walk. Homesickness nearly breaks her before she returns to the mountains she loves, and the story’s warmth reaches its peak when Clara comes to visit and the Alps work their own quiet cure. Published in two parts in 1880 and 1881, it remains a gentle argument for fresh air, kindness, and home. Free to read as a PDF and EPUB edition.
About the Author
Johanna Spyri (1827-1901) was a Swiss writer whose gentle stories celebrate childhood, nature, and the Alpine world she knew. Heidi, published when she was in her fifties, became a lasting classic, though she wrote many other books before her death in Zurich.
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