School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3In telescoping Spyri's 300-page novel into a picture book, Krupinski puts Heidi in charge of telling her story. The efficient first-person narrative is well served by crisply detailed watercolor illustrations depicting Grandfather's house, the Swiss mountainside, and the people and goats who live there. The austere depictions of Heidi's detainment in the city in Klara's house contrast well with the lush mountain scenes. Pages are awash in accurately rendered alpine flowers. The children are winsome; Heidi resembles Shirley Temple. Youngsters who crave the full emotional story will no doubt need to be led to original versions, such as that illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith (Morrow, 1996), but Krupinski has created a fine introduction.Susan Hepler, Alexandria City Public Schools, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
This truncated retelling of orphan Heidi's simple life in the Swiss Alps and her sojourn in the big city seems almost as indebted to the Shirley Temple film as to Johanna Spyri's 1880 novel. Krupinski's (A New England Scrapbook) heroine mimics Temple, curls, button nose and all, though she lacks the actress's expressive smile and gestures. Similarly blank-faced characters contrast with Krupinski's serene, lushly idealized landscape paintings: the people seem like wax dolls, but the glowing blankets of flowers make the Alps heaven on earth. The text emphasizes the sensual joys of fresh goat's milk, fir trees "with their piney scent," Heidi's sweet-smelling bed in her grandfather's hay loft, etc., but that is its only demonstrable strength. Both Heidi's relationship with her grandfather and the idealized subplot about wheelchair-bound Klara's learning to walk are woodenly described; little space is given to dialogue and even less to Heidi's emotions. The plot, too, is severely condensed: "Many more good things happened after that day." The book succeeds as a portrayal of the joys of mountain life, but otherwise fails to do justice to Spyri's story of a girl's courage and persistence. Ages 5-9. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
