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Heidi sequel #1
Heidi Grows Up
The sequel to Johanna Spyri's "Heidi", this is a Classic story for children and teens beautifully illustrated in Color & B/W by June Goldsborough.
190 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1938
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
September 27, 2018
3.5 stars. We loved first few chapters of this book and expected this to be a 5 star read. The description of Heidi's start at school, her strict teachers and room mate who announced she didn't want to share a room with a peasant were very engaging. The description of her visit home to the mountains and her friendship with Jamy and her relationship with Grandfather were wonderful, we enjoyed the way Heidi slipped back into the life she loved and we enjoyed discovering the goats personality quirks. The book then fast forwarded to Heidi finishing school and coming back to the village to teach. The storyline about Chel went on a bit and took up most of the second half of the book. I felt the message that although Chel was guilty off one thing, doesn't mean he's done another was told in a very heavy handed way, although perhaps at the time this was a new idea and not as obvious as it seems to a reader today. We appreciated the fact that Peter, on learning one of the male goats he looks after is to be sent to the butcher, uses his hard earned money to rescue him to keep as a companion. We did enjoy this but the first half of the book was much stronger than the second.
January 25, 2023
Cute little story what happened to Heidi after the Heidi book. I never knew there was a story after it. The book fell apart reading it so old was it, but it was an okay story. It is more for children, then for grownups. Some things like the fire, they don't explain how it happened, it was just there and I don't like that. The ending was a surprise. The book will get 3 points.
November 14, 2013
The day my twins started sleeping in separate rooms felt sad. Likewise, the day I had to start reading aloud to them separately felt sad as well. But it's natural of course that their interests steer different directions. While Austin listened to the complete book of "Heidi", he wasn't going to sit through "Heidi Grows Up"! Ashlyn couldn't wait...although on many a night, we would find Austin nonchalantly making his way to Ashlyn's room to listen. Although not written by original author Spyri, this author continues with the same charm and depth of the original characters. Without the translation, the words seem to flow a bit more naturally. And Ashlyn and I especially loved reading from the very same 1946 book her grandmother (my mom) had read when she was 10--same age as Ashlyn. Every image from my childhood of Heidi on the mountain with the grandfather returns as I read with my own daughter. That safe-snuggly-picturing-a-new-world-built-by-words, feeling, never changes.
January 24, 2023
A sweet and enjoyable read!
It was a nice follow up and I enjoyed seeing another scene of Heidi's youth and then particularly when she's a young woman, teaching in her dear little village of Dorfli. This book was just as sweet and full of moral nobleness as the first one, though in some situations, particularly with a ragamuffin orphan, it was perhaps handled a little too simplistically and naively.
I also would have liked to see a clearer transition from friendship to romance spring up between Heidi and Peter. Any reader would have rightly guessed that they would get married, but I felt like Tritten assumed their romance, wrote an abrupt wedding scene and therefore gipped the reader. Hence the three stars instead of four.
Ages: 6+
Cleanliness: Girls tease Heidi for having strong, country cheese. For a minute she wishes to throw it out the window but then remembers her grandfather made it with love for her. Fairies and folktales are mentioned. "Thank heaven for that!" and "Heaven forbid!" are exclaimed. A boy and girl hug. "Pooh" is exclaimed. Someone smokes a pipe. A young man and woman hold hands while hiking; they later hug and kiss.
It was a nice follow up and I enjoyed seeing another scene of Heidi's youth and then particularly when she's a young woman, teaching in her dear little village of Dorfli. This book was just as sweet and full of moral nobleness as the first one, though in some situations, particularly with a ragamuffin orphan, it was perhaps handled a little too simplistically and naively.
I also would have liked to see a clearer transition from friendship to romance spring up between Heidi and Peter. Any reader would have rightly guessed that they would get married, but I felt like Tritten assumed their romance, wrote an abrupt wedding scene and therefore gipped the reader. Hence the three stars instead of four.
Ages: 6+
Cleanliness: Girls tease Heidi for having strong, country cheese. For a minute she wishes to throw it out the window but then remembers her grandfather made it with love for her. Fairies and folktales are mentioned. "Thank heaven for that!" and "Heaven forbid!" are exclaimed. A boy and girl hug. "Pooh" is exclaimed. Someone smokes a pipe. A young man and woman hold hands while hiking; they later hug and kiss.
June 25, 2019
Loved this book as my Grandmother read all the Heidi books to me.
March 15, 2018
Read years ago. Sorry I didn't keep the book...loved it.
January 6, 2022
This is the book that I want to live in. Though from a writing craft perspective it is definitely not perfect. The time jumps are abrupt and almost jarring. And yet it is perfect in its own ways.
Heidi gets just enough of a taste of the outside world to know that it has nothing for her and she wants to spend the rest of her life in Dorfli. If her entire life was devoted to bringing love, joy, and redemption to one man (her grandfather) she is perfectly content in that, and I think that is such an incredibly beautiful message. And yet there IS so much more for her. She brings joy and new perspectives to everyone around her whether that is at boarding school, or coming back to Dorfli to show love and compassion to children who have been terrorized by abusive teachers. I love how she doesn't judge these poor mothers for sending their children to school dirty and unkempt but steps in the gap and teaches the girls how to care for themselves and support and help their mothers. And the redemption of Chel, and the transformation of the whole village in the process, has always been my favorite part of the story.
I am, and always will be, a mountain girl at heart. And the world is a much more beautiful place with this precious book in it.
Heidi gets just enough of a taste of the outside world to know that it has nothing for her and she wants to spend the rest of her life in Dorfli. If her entire life was devoted to bringing love, joy, and redemption to one man (her grandfather) she is perfectly content in that, and I think that is such an incredibly beautiful message. And yet there IS so much more for her. She brings joy and new perspectives to everyone around her whether that is at boarding school, or coming back to Dorfli to show love and compassion to children who have been terrorized by abusive teachers. I love how she doesn't judge these poor mothers for sending their children to school dirty and unkempt but steps in the gap and teaches the girls how to care for themselves and support and help their mothers. And the redemption of Chel, and the transformation of the whole village in the process, has always been my favorite part of the story.
I am, and always will be, a mountain girl at heart. And the world is a much more beautiful place with this precious book in it.
December 25, 2016
Heidi büyüdü, okula gitti hatta okulunu bitirdi ve öğretmen bile oldu :)
Peter ile sonsuza dek mutlu yaşayacaklar gibi görünüyor :)
Peter ile sonsuza dek mutlu yaşayacaklar gibi görünüyor :)
August 19, 2014
Yes, I read and enjoy my share of children's books, so the fact that this book is very much for children is not why it took me out of my reading comfort zone.
Can't say I've ever been the biggest proponent of sequels written by people other than the authors of the preceding books. The sentiment is like, "Dear Sir or Madam, I know you've got your own ideas about where you wish the original author's story would go, as countless readers do. But you're simply not the author, and this simply isn't your story to take over, especially not to the extent of a whole additional book."
Yet, readers of Heidi had been pleading for years to know what happened to Heidi, Peter, Klara, Grandfather, and all the others after the close of the first book (well, originally, the first two books), and author Johanna Spyri had passed on, so what else was one of Spyri's translators, Charles Tritten, to do? (More or less.) Besides, Heidi had closed with the chapter entitled "Parting to Meet Again," or as it's called in the Aladdin Classics copy I read, "Goodbye for the Present!" It's only natural that a goodbye-for-the-present should eventually have to be followed by some sort of a hello-again.
Heidi Grows Up is a pleasant "Hello, again!" And while it's likely that Spyri would've written it differently had she decided to continue the story in her own words before she passed, Tritten has done a good job of capturing the spirit of Heidi in his sequel.
I'm glad another ŷ member recommended this book to me. I may have to go on to read the final book of the series one day, just to round it all out.
Can't say I've ever been the biggest proponent of sequels written by people other than the authors of the preceding books. The sentiment is like, "Dear Sir or Madam, I know you've got your own ideas about where you wish the original author's story would go, as countless readers do. But you're simply not the author, and this simply isn't your story to take over, especially not to the extent of a whole additional book."
Yet, readers of Heidi had been pleading for years to know what happened to Heidi, Peter, Klara, Grandfather, and all the others after the close of the first book (well, originally, the first two books), and author Johanna Spyri had passed on, so what else was one of Spyri's translators, Charles Tritten, to do? (More or less.) Besides, Heidi had closed with the chapter entitled "Parting to Meet Again," or as it's called in the Aladdin Classics copy I read, "Goodbye for the Present!" It's only natural that a goodbye-for-the-present should eventually have to be followed by some sort of a hello-again.
Heidi Grows Up is a pleasant "Hello, again!" And while it's likely that Spyri would've written it differently had she decided to continue the story in her own words before she passed, Tritten has done a good job of capturing the spirit of Heidi in his sequel.
I'm glad another ŷ member recommended this book to me. I may have to go on to read the final book of the series one day, just to round it all out.
April 24, 2017
Heidi Grows Up is a sequel to the classic Heidi, though written by a different author. I think that since the author, Charles Tritten, was a translator of the original Heidi, that did have a good handle on the characters that he adopted. It shows in this wonderful novel, and I would say he carried out his plan beautifully until the end. The last chapter or two are very rushed, the events come out of almost nowhere, and these thoughts are tacked on to the end as if the author realized he hadn't said all he wanted to say in what was a wonderfully told story to that point.
Young Heidi must go off to school to continue her education, because the new schoolmaster in Dorfli is quite unreasonable. She leaves her grandfather and the good doctor during the year, coming home to visit on her school breaks. She gets along well wherever she goes, even when she encounters strife, just as Heidi always has. She finds lost souls and does her best to help them find themselves, beginning with a young girl Jamy who befriends her at the new school. And yet Heidi is still searching for her purpose. She believes it is to become a teacher in Dorfli, and so she sets her mind to this task. Follow Heidi on her journey towards adulthood, and see what good she does for all those who surround her, in this well deserved sequel to Heidi.
Young Heidi must go off to school to continue her education, because the new schoolmaster in Dorfli is quite unreasonable. She leaves her grandfather and the good doctor during the year, coming home to visit on her school breaks. She gets along well wherever she goes, even when she encounters strife, just as Heidi always has. She finds lost souls and does her best to help them find themselves, beginning with a young girl Jamy who befriends her at the new school. And yet Heidi is still searching for her purpose. She believes it is to become a teacher in Dorfli, and so she sets her mind to this task. Follow Heidi on her journey towards adulthood, and see what good she does for all those who surround her, in this well deserved sequel to Heidi.
November 22, 2014
I did not own the book Heidi when I was young. I owned this instead - Heidi Grows Up. Not as good. I used to pick it up, wish it was Heidi, but start trying to read it anyway. If I had owned Heidi, I might have fonder memories of this book, but I didn't own Heidi so I do not.
August 31, 2013
Picks up a few years after Heidi, and written by the author's translator after her death. Heidi goes to school, Heidi makes a new friend, who comes to stay with her in the Alps over the school vacation, Heidi goes back to school, but we don't see any more of her time there, because the next thing we know she's home again, instead of going to study the violin in Paris, and has applied to teach in the village school, and then she's waiting to find out if she gets the job, and then in the very next paragraph it's her first day, but she doesn't have any pupils because the last teacher scared them so much. The biggest problem here was the way time was condensed so much. I'd say the book must cover 2-3 years, but it jumped around so much - months passed from one sentence to the next. It's a commendable effort at picking up someone else's original story, but it is very gappy. I read this when I was about 9 or 10, and I must say it hasn't aged as well as the original, but I'll keep my eyes out for the final volume.
May 28, 2021
I will never reread this because I would probably hate it, but GOD did I love this story when I was a kid. I read it before I read the first Heidi book, and I think that ruined my enjoyment of the first. I adore this book, even though it's basically fanfiction, and I love finding out what happened to all the characters I loved the first time round. I laughed, I cried, I It's not great writing, but I don't even care.
August 24, 2016
I really enjoyed Heidi but this sequel was too obviously not written by the same author. The characters didn't ring true, instead coming across as caricatures of themselves, with a repetition of devices of character development and plot from the first novel. However, it was pleasant enough as classic novels go.
August 28, 2022
As with the original “Heidi� by Johanna Spyri, this sequel written by one of Ms. Spyri’s translators transported me to wildflower meadows in the Swiss Alps, where there was an abundance of fresh goat cheese and kindness. Heidi proves over and over again that kindness matters. What’s not to love.
October 4, 2010
Good book for an adaption of classic character. Written by the author's translator. Adorable story.
May 27, 2016
Tritten does a great job of capturing the spirit of this spirited character, and those of her family and friends.
November 25, 2020
2.5 stars. I didn't realise this sequel wasn't written by the original author until I picked it out my childhood bookshelf but I still felt Charles Tritten wrote in a similar style to the original novel.
This novel covered a large time span which I felt didn’t always work � at the beginning of the novel Heidi is 14 and goes to a boarding school and returns to the Alps for the holidays with a school friend but suddenly without warning she graduates, teaches in the village school and then marries Peter (with no transition from friendship to romance)!. I think this sequel would have worked better if it had just stayed with her during her boarding school years.
Again, there is religious moralising and very simplistic ways for solving complex situations, but I felt I enjoyed this sequel more than the original Heidi.
This novel covered a large time span which I felt didn’t always work � at the beginning of the novel Heidi is 14 and goes to a boarding school and returns to the Alps for the holidays with a school friend but suddenly without warning she graduates, teaches in the village school and then marries Peter (with no transition from friendship to romance)!. I think this sequel would have worked better if it had just stayed with her during her boarding school years.
Again, there is religious moralising and very simplistic ways for solving complex situations, but I felt I enjoyed this sequel more than the original Heidi.
April 17, 2025
I think it was only this year I learned that Charles Tritten had continued Heidi's story. What a delight to read this sequel and to find how well Tritten captured Johanna Spyri's voice and the characters she created in her original classic volume. I look forward to reading his other Heidi books and to completing the series.
September 21, 2023
A simple and sweet story, I really enjoyed it. I love finding little gems like this while browsing the bookshelves! At times, the older books can have a more authentic feel to them.
August 18, 2016
I had completely forgotten that the sequelae to were written by someone other than Johanna Spyri. I approached a re-read with caution and rediscovered that Charles Tritten was Spyri's translator and a personal friend and that alone made it more of a sequel and less of a cashing in on a famous book kind of thing. It reads pretty faithfully to the original - though Peter seems to have grown a few brain cells in the interval - and I take it kindly that Tritten says he wrote to two books because children were asking for the story and Spyri herself would never have refused any child's request, especially after her only son died. The simple morality that flows through survives and into the next one too.
October 18, 2016
To αγαπημένο μου από τα παιδικά βιβλία! Το πρωτοδιάβασα στην τρίτη δημοτικού, όταν η δασκάλα μεταξύ άλλων μας έδωσε ένα σημείωμα με βιβλία παιδικά για το καλοκαίρι για να εξασκηθούμε στην ανάγνωση αλλά και να καλλιεργήσουμε την φαντασία μας παράλληλα! Το λάτρεψα ίσως περισσότερο και από το πρώτο βιβλίο της χάιντι! Μεχρι πέρσυ δεν ήξερα πως υπήρχαν και συνέχειες της χαιντι από την άγκυρα, είχαν εκδοθεί στα μέσα του 80' η χάιντι -μαμά και η χάιντι-γιαγιά, μακάρι να τα βρισκα ,δυσκολο φυσικά... ποτέ δεν ξέρεις! Η χαιντι ενα αγαπημένο πλάσμα που προσπαθεί να χαρεί με τις απλές χαρές της ζωής και είναι τελείως απροσποίητη! Ακόμα και όταν συναντά δύσκολους και σνομπ ανθρώπους δεν το βάζει κάτω! ενα υπόδειγμα υπομονής και αγάπης
June 2, 2016
This was another of my mother's great ability to buy the second book in a series. I liked this one a lot though and I kept looking for the orifinal Heidi. When I finally read Heidi it was a bit of a let down. Not from any problem wirth the book itsweld. I juat had built iir up so much that anything would have had difficulty matching my expectations. As an adult though I see the same medicine doing amazing healing as in the Secret Garden (although there is less British exceptionalism in Heidi... for obvious reasons). Mostly just my hang-up. Read both and enjoy. I didn't know about the continued series so 'all have to fit them in so I can lwearn moerw of Heidi.
July 24, 2014
Heidi Grows Up is a beautiful sequel to Heidi. This was the first book that I was emotionally connected to, and that was evident when I cried at the ending.
Before it, books were just things to pass the time for me. Some made me happy, and that was it. But I had never before experienced the beauty of books and a felt a part of the story. Even now that I am older, I am still in love with this book.
Before it, books were just things to pass the time for me. Some made me happy, and that was it. But I had never before experienced the beauty of books and a felt a part of the story. Even now that I am older, I am still in love with this book.
May 18, 2015
A sequel to Heidi. Not written by Johanna Spyri--she didn't write any more books about Heidi--but written in a voice and style similar to Heidi. Heidi goes to a boarding school, makes friends, studies the violin, comes back to the Alps with a school friend, teaches in the village school, and marries Peter. There is a section in the middle of the book that is too much sweetness and light, but the end of the book is satisfying.
April 5, 2014
Charles Tritten, who was Frau Spyri's English translator, does an admirable job of continuing the tale and trying to answer the questions left at the end of "Heidi". This book and its sequel "Heidi's Children" really deserve to come back into print so that everyone can see how the loose ends are tied up.
February 22, 2017
I had no idea that there was a sequel to Heidi before yesterday!
I quite enjoyed the book, but it did have a different feel to it than the original. Of course, that is probably because it wasn't actually written by Johanna Spyri - but all in all a good book with wonderful imagery. So keen to read more about Heidi gah this is a good day
I quite enjoyed the book, but it did have a different feel to it than the original. Of course, that is probably because it wasn't actually written by Johanna Spyri - but all in all a good book with wonderful imagery. So keen to read more about Heidi gah this is a good day
February 15, 2012
As a child, I loved this book far more than the the classic first book. I read it again and again. It was sweet and pure and captured my imagination. I wanted to be Heidi teaching the children of Dorfli with my best friend Peter sharing in my adventures.
February 28, 2014
It was cute and interesting book but i like the first one more and i thought it was cool that she was was all grown up. most of the characters from the last book are still in this book including peter to goat hereder
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