Indholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2021 i Faces People, Places, and World Culture for Kids and Children

Bigger isn’t always better. Whether it’s a plant, animal, or place, small things can have a big impact. Here are five facts to get you started. 1 Although they are called “toy trains,” they aren’t for playing with. The small trains of India have small engines, few carriages, and narrow tracks, but they are fully functional. People come from around the world to take a ride on these unique trains. 2 With fewer than 900 residents, Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. One could walk the entire perimeter of the Vatican in about an hour. Despite its small population and area, the Vatican’s policies influence more than 960 million Roman Catholics around the world. 3 The art of cultivating tiny trees in containers is called “bonsai.” The…

Every day, the residents of the Indian town of Kalka wake up to a train’s shrill whistles. But what chugs out of the station is no ordinary train. It’s so small that it could be part of a toy set. In fact, it is one of India’s “toy trains,” a group of trains named for their tiny features—small engines, few carriages, and narrow train tracks. Across India, three such mini-vehicles lumber up sheer mountain slopes, traverse sparkling rivers, and navigate tight curves. Two of them operate in the Himalayas, the mountain range that crowns India’s northern border—the Kalka-Shimla Railway and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Both their names are based on the towns they connect. The third, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, runs in South India’s Nilgiri mountains. BEGINNINGS The trains also…

“Banzai!” is an old Japanese battle cry, similar to the English “Charge!” It should not be confused with “bonsai” (no exclamation mark), which is a Japanese botanical art. The word comes from “bon,” meaning container, tray, or pot, and “sai,” meaning woody plant, shrub, or tree. Hence, bonsai is the art of cultivating tiny potted trees. Peoples from many ancient civilizations knew how to grow small trees in containers. The Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, Persians, Hindus, and Egyptians all raised trees in captivity. Small, portable trees were prized as garden specimens. They were also convenient sources of ingredients for cooking and medicines. But in Japan, an ancient Chinese tradition of raising trees in pots blossomed into an art form with rules and ideals of its own. Bonsai trees were meant to…

Have you ever had a playhouse? Maybe it was a tiny little wooden cottage in your backyard, or a tree house, or even a tent made of blankets and chairs. Part of what made it so wonderful was that it was small and cozy and welcoming. Well, you don’t necessarily have to give up these kinds of little spaces when you become an adult and are deciding where you want to live. Thanks to the Tiny House Movement, people are beginning to discover how great living “small” can be. For hundreds of years, many Americans wanted to have the biggest, grandest houses possible. Big houses showed that their owners were wealthy and owned so much stuff they needed large spaces to hold them. Even middle-class families kept living in larger…

RHODE ISLAND is the smallest U.S. state by area (1,214 square miles). WYOMING is the smallest by population (572,381 people). THE ARCTIC OCEAN is the Earth’s smallest ocean. It is also the shallowest. What a cute little dog! The CHIHUAHUA is the smallest breed of dog. Small continent or big island? AUSTRALIA is considered a continent and islands are smaller than continents, so by that definition, Australia is the smallest continent on the planet. The three-wheeled PEEL P50 is the smallest production car ever made. It has room for one person—the driver. The cars are manufactured in England and can be legally driven on the road. Jupiter has 79 moons—the most of any planet in our solar system. Its smallest moon is EUROPA and is slightly smaller than the Earth’s…

Visit Thailand, and you’ll soon notice that near every house, temple, hotel, bank, business, restaurant, and outdoor market there is a small building set on a concrete or wood platform. These structures may look like dollhouses or toys, but their role in Thai culture has nothing to do with fun. They are spirit houses (phra phum, pronounced “prah poom”) for the guardian spirits. Spirit houses copy the styles of buildings on the property where they are placed. The tiny house on a temple ground looks like that temple. The spirit house of a large hotel is an elegant miniature version, and spirit houses in the countryside resemble simple farmhouses. Carpenters specialize in constructing these houses. Thailand is primarily a Buddhist country. However, another, much older, religious belief called animism intermingles…

Tiny Texts A miniature book is a book that’s made to be tiny—usually smaller than four inches. People have been making miniature books for thousands of years.…

Think Small: The Tiniest Art in the World by Eva Katz features a sculpture by artist Jonty Hurwitz that is so small you have to use a microscope to see it. Another artist, Willard Wigan, makes art so tiny, that it fits in the eye of a needle. He even used a human eyelash as a paintbrush. Yet another artist Slinkachu leaves miniature sculptures around the city of London for citizens to discover. There are lots of benefits to making art on a small scale. For one, it’s cheaper. You don’t have to pay for large canvases or loads of paint. Because you need fewer materials, it’s easier to use what you have on hand. Tiny art is a great way to use up leftover supplies. Storing tiny art is…

Why do mighty elephants, whales, and bears get all the attention, while smaller animals get the SHORT end of the stick? As it turns out, there are some big advantages to being little. For one thing, tiny creatures need fewer resources (food and water) to survive. Another advantage is that compact critters can squeeze into all sorts of hiding places to escape predators and to hibernate. For more about the wee-est wonders of the world, read on. 5 Bee Hummingbird ( Mellisuga helenae ) Although the bee hummingbird is the smallest bird on the planet, it has big energy. This little dynamo is only 2.2 inches long and weighs .06 ounces, but it requires ten times the energy spent by marathon runners. No wonder one bird eats…

State della Citta del Vaticano (the State of Vatican City) is one-eighth the size of New York City’s Central Park, one-fourth the size of Monaco, and smaller than the average 400-home suburban neighborhood. Vatican guides report that most people can walk the perimeter of the Vatican in 60 minutes or less. Yet, this tiny independent state (the world’s smallest) maintains a position of great global importance. Why? Vatican policies influence more than 960 million Roman Catholics, citizens of virtually every other nation on earth. Although the Vatican maintains a neutral international status, world leaders regularly ask the pope and other Vatican officials for advice, support, and help in mediating disputes among nations. In addition, the United Nations declared the Vatican a World Heritage Site (a designation given to places of…

Madurodam is an open-air miniature park in The Hague, the Netherlands. It is the perfect place to discover everything that is quintessentially Dutch. More than half a million visitors come each year to see tulip fields, windmills, cheese markets, and canal houses brought to life on a tiny scale. Opened in 1952, Madurodam was created as a memorial to George Maduro, a war hero who fought the Nazi invasion during World War II and later died in a concentration camp. His parents donated money to help build the miniature city. Profits from the park were used to raise funds for charities. Income from Madurodam goes to the Madurodam Support Fund Society, which helps children in need. On July 2, 1952, a teenaged Princess Beatrix was named mayor of Madurodam. After…

In a tiny corner of a swamp, there was a knee-high man who lived in a miniature house. This knee-high man was self-conscious about his size and would tell anyone with an ear that he wanted to be big instead of small. When no one listened to him, he devised a plan: “I’m going to find whoever is the largest in this community and ask him how I can become sizable.” So the knee-high man went out for a stroll and came upon a large stallion eating an apple. He said, “Excuse me, Mr. Stallion, I’d like some advice on how to get to be your size. What would you suggest?” Mr. Stallion peered down at the knee-high man, swallowed the apple he was eating, and offered some advice. “Little…