Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning ( ), usually abbreviated Heidi, is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care, in the Swiss Alps. It was written as a book "for children and those who love children" as quoted from its subtitle in 1880 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. Two sequels, Heidi Grows Up and Heidi's Children, were not written by Spyri, but by her English translator, Charles Tritten.

The Heidi books are among the best-known works of Swiss literature.

Plot summary

Dete returns three years later to bring Heidi to Frankfurt as a companion of a 12-year-old invalid girl named Clara Sessemann. Heidi spends a year with Clara, clashing repeatedly with the Sessemanns' strict housekeeper Miss Rottenmeier and becoming more and more homesick. Her one diversion is learning to read and write, motivated by her desire to go home and read to Peter's blind grandmother. Heidi's increasingly failing health and several instances of sleepwalking (it is implied that she has inherited a propensity to epilepsy from her mother) prompt Clara's doctor to send her home to her grandfather. Her return prompts the grandfather to descend to the village for the first time in years, marking an end to his seclusion.

Heidi and Clara continue to write to each other. A visit by the doctor to Heidi and her grandfather convinces him to recommend that Clara journey to visit Heidi. Meanwhile, Heidi teaches Peter to read and write. Clara makes the journey the next season and spends a wonderful summer with Heidi. Clara becomes stronger on goat's milk and fresh mountain air, but Peter is jealous of Clara and pushes her wheelchair down the mountain to its destruction. Without her wheelchair, Clara attempts to walk and is gradually successful. Clara's Grandmother and Father are amazed and overcome with joy to see Clara walking. Clara's wealthy family promises to provide a shelter for Heidi, in case her grandfather will no longer be able to do so.

Film, television and theatrical adaptations

About 20 film or television productions of the original story have been made, including the very popular 52-episode anime series, Heidi, Girl of the Alps, made by the animation studio Zuiyo Eizo in 1974 and directed by Isao Takahata. The Heidi films were popular all over the world, becoming a huge hit and an iconic animation series in several countries around the world. The only incarnation of the series to reach the English language was a dub of the 1979 feature-length movie adaptation of the television series, released on video in the United States in 1985. Although the original book describes Heidi to have dark, curly hair, she most popularly portrayed as a blonde.

Other versions of the story include: