Moni the Goat-Boy follows the story of Solomon, nicknamed Moni, a Swiss lad who's convinced he's got the sweetest job ever--- goat-boy of his home village. Every day he collects the one or two goats owned by each village household and leads them up the mountain to find fresh grazing. He loves the goats, and he trusts in the Lord to help him when he has to rescue a goat who's gotten in to a dangerous place on the high mountain.
One day Moni's friend Jörgli confides that he has found a valuable piece of jewelry lost by a tourist, and that he intends to sell it to a hotel girl. Moni insists that it would be wrong to do so. Jörgli assures Moni's silence by telling him that his very favorite goat is to be butchered, but that Jörgli will save the goat if Moni keeps silence.
Moni agrees, but his usual cheerful manner is gone because of the oppressive secret. When he realizes that he will from now on be unable to ask the Lord for help if he needs to take risks to rescue a goat, on account of the burden of his sin, he begins to think that he will have to tell the truth even if it does cost him the life of his best goat-friend.
The conclusion of the story tells of Moni's decision and its consequences. The story, filled with local color of the Alps, is a delightful one for all ages. The Christian content of the story is very natural and beautiful, not in the least intrusive to the story. Moni the Goat-Boy is available for free both in English translation and in the original German.
Johanna Spyri (1827-1901) was a Christian author best known for the book 'Heidi' which was filmed several times, including one version with Shirley Temple in the starring role. No movie version has yet done justice to the profound Christian orientation of that book.
Johanna Spyri was one of six children born to a doctor and a Pietist poetess. When she married, she suffered depression after the birth of her only child. She was encouraged to begin writing, and wrote many stories of faith with rural Swiss settings. While Heidi is the only one of her works known in the English-speaking world today, many others are still available in German.
Johanna Spyri in German Wikipedia
Download Moni the Goat-Boy from ManyBooks.net
Download Moni der Geißbub (German edition)
Other free ebooks by Johanna Spyri, in English and German
2 comments:
Awesome! I just finished re-reading Heidi about four or five weeks ago. It's one of my all-time favorites, but I was unaware that this was available. Thanks!
I have this on my Kindle in both German and English. Kind of cheated and read the English, I haven't kept up with my German very well in recent years. Used to have a German language television channel but can't afford it any more.
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