Luckily, it appears that these two minor characters are the only ones over the top. There are several other dramatically acted voices, but these two made me need to skip forward in the audiobook. I am grateful whenever another character interrupts him. The tutor probably captures his personality well, but I want to strangle him to make him shut up. The Fraulein is rife with hysterics that sometimes render her words indiscernible. The narrator, while usually lovely and pleasant to listen to, has a couple character voices that are almost unbearable: Fraulein R and the Tutor. There are two things I feel important to note to future listeners.

Some of the others I listened to had annoying pronunciations that I could never have listened to over a long period of time. I thoroughly enjoyed Marnie MacAdam's narration. As this book has been recorded by multiple narrators, i was careful to choose the one I thought was best. But I definitely think it is worth reading, especially if you are a youngster. I had a hard time believing in the deep relationship between Heidi and the Grandfather in the book, whereas the movie made it easy to see through him and into his heart. I did get to see the movie with the irrepressible Shirley Temple multiple times as a child (we didn't have the capability of seeing a movie any time we wanted back then - had to wait until it came on TV, perhaps once every other year).

I would probably have appreciated it more than I do now. Perhaps I should have read it as a young person. This is one of the few times where I liked the movie better than the book.

Heidi book by johanna spyri