Friday Feature: Heidi

Friday Feature is where we share books we love that have been out for several years. We don't want these treasures to get lost just because they aren't babies anymore!

Heidi
by Johanna Spyri

327 pages

Johanna Spyri's classic story of a young orphan sent to live with her grumpy grandfather in the Swiss Alps is retold 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.

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I'll never be able to say how much I love this book. I will say that because of it I had a "Heidi dress" when I was about seven (which I wore until it fell apart), and when I decided to start collecting a Christmas village I chose an Alpine Village. I want to live in this book.

I hadn't read this in a long time, and it was so fun to read it again! I love everything about it--the incredible descriptions, Heidi's excitement over everything from the opening flowers to the sound of the wind in the firs, the heartache when she thinks she can't go home. I still cry with and for her, even though I've read it more times than I can count.

The message that we get can gain so much happiness from the simple act of caring for those around us is such a great reminder for each of us to take the time to see the needs of those around us and do something to help them.

And yes, it MUST be this edition!