Heidi

Heidi, a five-year-old orphan, is taken by her aunt to live with her grandfather, a gruff old man who has cut himself off from the village and lives alone high on a Swiss mountain. Heidi's joy wins him over, and she spends happy days with Peter the goatherd in the meadows. Then she is taken to Frankfurt to be a companion to Clara, a rich girl who cannot walk, and grows so homesick for the mountains that she begins to sleepwalk.

Johanna Spyri (1827–1901) grew up in a village above Lake Zurich and published Heidi in two parts in 1880 and 1881. Its picture of the healing power of nature and kindness has made it one of the most read children's books in the world, adapted countless times, including the much-loved Japanese animated series.