Heidi: A Retelling for Curious Readers

A look inside

The opening of Heidi: A Retelling for Curious Readers, free to read.

1. 

   Heidi was five, and she was much too hot. Her parents had died when she was a baby. This June morning her aunt Dete was marching her up a steep mountain in Switzerland. Dete would not carry Heidi’s clothes, so Heidi wore them all: two dresses and a thick red shawl. She puffed up the path like a small bundle with feet.

2. 

   A goatherd boy named Peter came by with his herd. Peter had bare feet. The goats had quick, bare legs, and nobody made them wear a shawl. That settled it. Shoes, stockings, shawl, and both dresses landed in a heap, and Heidi skipped off after the goats. “Heidi, where are all your clothes?” cried Dete. Heidi pointed down the hill. “Down there.”

3. 

   By afternoon they reached a small hut at the top. An old man with a gray beard and bushy eyebrows sat outside, smoking his pipe. People called him the Alm-Uncle, after the Alm, the high mountain pasture where he lived. Most people were afraid of him. Heidi held out her hand. “Good-evening, Grandfather.” “So, so, what is the meaning of this?” he growled.