Heidi

I just finished reading the book Heidi to the kids, and we adored it. [Ella actually told me she liked it better than the Little House books. Now that I find hard to believe. I think it's just because Heidi is so fresh in her mind right now. But that's how popular this book was.] If you have not read the book in its unabridged form, you are missing out.

I happen to be kind of a snob about unabridged books versus abridged books. It's a rare exception that we'll read anything abridged, and I'll give you a great example of why that is the case.

Here is a portion from the [unabridged] book we just finished:

"Oh, grandfather!" she said, "everything is lovelier than it ever was before in our lives!" Heidi jumped up and down. Then suddenly she became very serious. Taking her grandfather's hand, she said, "If the dear Lord had done right away what I prayed for so hard, everything would not be as it is now. I would only have come home again and brought the grandmother just a few rolls, and I couldn't have read to her. But the dear Lord had thought it all out so much better than I knew. I am glad that he did not grant what I asked and longed for! Now I will always pray as the grandmamma told me, and if the dear Lord does not do as I ask, I will remember it is because He is planning something much better, just the way He did when I was in Frankfurt. We will pray every day, won't we? We will never forget Him."

"And if one should do so?" murmured the grandfather.

"Oh, it would not be well for him, for then the dear Lord would forget him, too."

"That is true, Heidi. How did you know it?"

"From the grandmamma. She told me all about it."

The grandfather was silent for a while. Then he said, "And if it is so, then it is so. No one can go back, for whomever God had forgotten, He has forgotten."

"Oh, no, grandfather, one can go back. That I know, too, from the grandmamma. And then it says so in the beautiful story in my book. When we get home, you shall see how beautiful the story is."

As soon as they reached the hut, Heidi ran inside to get her book. With one bound she was at her grandfather's side and had found her story, for she had read it so often that the book opened of itself at the place. Heidi read with great feeling about the prodigal son.

"Isn't that a beautiful story, grandfather?" she asked.

"Yes, Heidi, the story is beautiful," he said, but his face was so serious that Heidi became quite still and looked at her pictures. She quietly pushed the book in front of her grandfather.

"See how happy he is!" she said, pointing to the picture of the prodigal son's return home, in which he stands in fresh garments beside his father, and once more is his son.

A few hours later, when Heidi was asleep, her grandfather climbed the little ladder. He put his lamp beside her bed so that the light fell upon the sleeping child. She lay there with folded hands, for she had not forgotten to pray. He stood looking at her for a long time. Then he, too, folded his hands and bowed his head.

"Father," he prayed, "I have sinned against Heaven and before Thee and am no more worthy to be called Thy son!" And great tears rolled down his cheeks.

And here is the same part of the story, rephrased for a popular adaptation of the book:

On the way back up the mountain, Heidi had so much to tell her grandfather that she talked until they reached the hut. She told Grandfather about her idea for using the money Mr. Seseman had given her. Grandfather smiled when he saw how generous and kind-hearted Heidi was.

That evening at dinner, as Heidi chatted about her life in the city and how kind everyone had been to her, a change came over Grandfather. For the first time in a very long while, he saw the goodness in other people. And he saw this goodness through Heidi's eyes. He realized what a gift this child was, and that his life of bitterness was not good for him and certainly not good for Heidi.

That night Uncle Alp made an important decision. He decided to return to a life that included other people.

Aack! Do you see what I mean? The original is so much richer than the adaptation. Okay, I'm stepping off my soapbox. But recommending the book nonetheless.

And now I'm trying to research which Heidi movie is most faithful to the original book.