heidi epitome of incomprehensibility By Johanna Spyri. Just finished (for the 2nd time, I think.) The scenes she creates are vivid, and Heidi an adorable weirdo, but the adults' talk strikes me as preachy. So it was one of those childhood books that only *sort* of holds up on a re-reading. Maybe it's one I can read in German, though! I miiiight have enough vocabulary to puzzle it out. But the versions I have are 1) a regular old translation and 2) a shortened, illustrated version. I think it's the second that made me love the story as a little kid. The pictures - originally paintings, it looks like - are so colourful. I would say "vivid" again, but let's give some credit to the original author for making word-pictures that can be rendered vividly. But I think I still like the picture book better! Klara's father Herr Sesemann turns out strikingly handsome, and her Grandmamma's cap is a marvel of lace. The picture book I have is in the Little Unicorn series, illustrated by Donna Pacinelli. The chapter book is from Armada books, translated by one M. Rosenbaum. (My mind: "Mr. Rose-tree," taking the M. as shortened French for Monsieur and the rest as German, and then, "But is the German word for bush the same as the word for tree?" and now I have to look it up. I HAVE to. The power of ADHD compels me. Okay, it's just Busch.) Oh, and bit of a rant: if you read select nineteenth-century kids' literature, you'd come out with the idea that kids in wheelchairs can learn to walk if they just TRY. I blame this book in particular, because in The Secret Garden there's at least an explanation for the not-walking and then the walking: Colin's neglect from his grieving father makes him act out whiny hypochondria, and that works too well: he becomes convinced he can't walk. (My own younger hypochondria had less of an excuse, but it was also less extreme.) But what's the deal with Klara? Why couldn't she walk in the first place, besides being vaguely "ill"?? 250724 ... e_o_i ...Of course, not all wheelchairs are for people who absolutely CAN'T walk; many people have wheelchairs because they can't walk consistently, because they have difficulty standing or walking for long periods of time. It's just that Klara's family seems so astonished to see her going about on two feet, as if this hasn't happened before. Maybe before she had eight legs and was a giant spider...? (I'll ask Spyri if she can collaborate with George MacDonald in Quirky Christian Heaven and then send the results to my dreams. Heidi: The Furry Version. Peter shapeshifts into a goat, Klara is a spider-girl, and Heidi...I don't know what Heidi is, but she's SOMETHING, okay?) 250724 what's it to you? who go blather from