Illustrated Classic Editions. Original story by Johanna Spyri.

Heidi is one of those classic novels that was made into a movie long, long ago and no one has bothered to attempt a remake since, not because the original movie was so great, but because the story doesn’t translate well into the modern way of thinking. My mom had the old, old movie recorded onto VHS (among a thousand others)—probably ripped right from Turner Classic Movies—and I don’t recall once having ever wanted to watch it. Now that my kids are far more interested in hearing chapter books at night, however, I thought I would give this story the old college try.

After finishing the Illustrated Classic Edition of The Call of the Wild for our nighttime reading—a story both of my children absolutely loved—I wanted to try something starring a little heroine for the sake of my five-year old daughter, and Heidi promised to fit the bill. But even though Heidi is also 5-7 years old, and even though she lives in a beautiful place and has a best friend and is the most loving little person you’d ever want to met, her story just wasn’t all that appealing to my kids. I know why.

I’m all for plot, don’t get me wrong. The worst thing about modern movies, after all, is the sacrifice of story in favor of the “bang.” But Heidi has plenty of meaty plot points, so this is not where she fails. At least in this Illustrated Classics Edition adapted by Deidre S. Laiken, Heidi‘s major fault is a lack of dialogue. Did Laiken edit every interesting bit of conversation out of Spyri’s original novel, or was the original as dry as this? While reading this book aloud to my children, I felt as if I were telling the “Cliff-Notes” version instead of engaging them in the story through characterization and emotion.

Honestly, as long as a conscientious reader can bring dialogue alive, any mediocre tale can grab a child’s attention. But it needs dialogue! Voice fluctuations, character accents, or whatever other tools he wants to use—a reader can bring life to any story, if the author at least gives him a chance. Laiken might have managed to sneak every point from the Heidi outline into this abridgment, but she forgot to give it life. My kids were happiest when I told them, “All done!”, and that’s right after they learned that Clara could walk and Heidi’s only wish was for Peter’s Grannie to have her own comfortable bed.

As always, I tried to bring our nighttime reading into our bedtime prayers, and that was generally pretty easy to do with Heidi. We thanked God for her kindness, always putting the needs of others ahead of her own, etc. There’s plenty to learn from the story, I suppose, but it needs some reanimation if it’s going to impact this (or my) generation.

©2018 E.T.