Introduction

At age six, Ruthie became fascinated with a small edited and abridged story of Johanna Spyris Heidi. Over the years, she would consider it one of her favorite stories. It was only after she retired that she took the time to read the full novel and share it with her grandchildren. At that time, she realized that the first version she had read did not reveal the full story of a loving and caring God that was in the original 300-plus page novel. As she told the story to her grandchildren, she became aware that something was missing in all of the smaller versions of the book. She began a collection of picture books of Heidi. None of them contained the complete story of God's plan of hope and redemption that was learned and shared by Heidi. Although many people have heard of the story of Heidi, or perhaps had seen the movie version, few, if any, had any knowledge of the full story. Thus began her quest to rewrite a story filled with the original message in a shortened and illustrated form.