Heidi

About This Book

Heidi by Johanna Spyri is about a five-year-old little orphan girl who goes to live with her long lost grandfather and her blind grandmother, in the Swiss Alps. Heidi brings great pleasure to everyone she meets in the Swiss Alps with her love of life and pleasant attitude. Heidi is then traumatized when she is forced to leave the mountains to serve as a companion to a woman named Klara. Heidi comes home to visit and shares memorable moments with her friends and family. Heidi has changed with lives of everyone she has had connect with, with her unforgettable and pleasant personality.

Genre

Historical Fiction

Importance

Heidi would be a great book for children to read. The book shows children how being grateful and pleasant can have a long lasting affect on people they encounter. Heidi will also teach children to cherish their family and friends because Heidi was an orphan and not fortunate to have a family before she found her grandfather.

Discussion Questions

• How do you think Heidi felt living as an orphan?
• How would you feel if you no longer had your families and friends?
• How does Heidi bring light to her blind grandmother?

Activities for the Children

• Have the children draw a picture of Heidi with her Grandfather and her goat.
• Have the children draw a picture of their family members.
• Write a vocabulary list of the words in Heidi and have the children study their meaning.

Spyri, J. (2000). Heidi. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications.