Faces People, Places, and World Culture for Kids and Children - September 2022

52 Pages·2022·51.6 MB·English

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Sweden
EDITOR Elizabeth Crooker
ART DIRECTOR Nicole Welch
DESIGNER Erin Hookana
VP OF EDITORIAL & CONTENT James M. O’Connor
COPY EDITOR Suzanne Fox
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ASSISTANT EDITOR Emily Cambias
ASSISTANT EDITOR Hayley Kim
SEPTEMBER 2022
WISECRACKS AND WITTICISMS Colin Draun
BOARD OF ADVISORS

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ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF GEOGRAPHY,
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AND INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES OFFICE,
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
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Stockholm, Sweden, is one of the world’s
most beautiful capital cities. Alexandra
Ekdahl/EyeEm/Alamy Stock Photo
FEATURES

8 W elcome to Sweden

by Ann Stalcup
12 Kan Jag Lära Mig Svenska?
Can I Learn Swedish?
by Emilie Ostrander
14 Black Days &
White Nights
by Karyn Sandström

18 S weden’s Waste-free
Future
Pg 8
by Rachel Kehoe
22 T he Ice Hotel of Sweden
by Gail Skroback Hennessey

26 T he Vasa
by Ruth Rodgers
30 Celebrating with Candles:
Pg 18
St. Lucia’s Day
by Ann Stalcup
42
What Shall Baby’s
Name Be?
retold by Pat Betteley
Pg 22
DEPARTMENTS
2 High 5
4 At A Glance
6 Critter Corner
21 Where in the World?
34 Dear Kylie
38 A Closer Look
40 Sweden Crossword
46 Art Connection
Pg 14
48 Say What?
49 One Last Face
Pg 26
ACTIVITY
33 Your Turn
Check out our
online teacher’s guides at

WWW.CRICKETMEDIA.COM/
TEACHER-RESOURCES/
Pg 30
HIGH FIVE
SWEDEN IS NORTHERN EUROPE’S
LARGEST COUNTRY. Known for its natural
beauty, Sweden is also home to Stockholm,
a city made up of 14 islands. Here are five
facts about the Land of the Midnight Sun
to get you started.
Fall and winter are
the best times to see
the Northern Lights
in Sweden.
2
Is the aurora
borealis heavy? Npore, titty’s light.
1
In northern Sweden, in the 12 weeks surrounding the winter solstice,
people enjoy only a few hours of light, or if they live above the Arctic
Circle, none at all. In the six months between winter and summer solstice,
northern Swedes gain 20 to 24 hours of light—between 50 minutes and an hour
of light per week.
2
Sweden has a long tradition of equality for women. In Viking times,
marriage laws guaranteed it, and in the 13th century, royal advisor Birger
Jarl wrote laws protecting women. Modern women can apply for and get
any type of work, and new mothers are allowed a year of leave with 90% pay.
3
Sweden recycles nearly 50% of what it throws away. But what about the
other half? This is what makes Sweden different from the rest of the
world: that waste goes to a power plant where it is burned and converted
into energy. In 2016, Sweden ran into a surprising problem—the country had
started running out of trash. So, Sweden began importing waste from other
countries. In 2021, around 1.9 million tons of waste were brought in from the
United Kingdom, Norway, Ireland, and Italy. This keeps the waste-to-energy
plants chugging along.
4
The world’s largest and first Ice Hotel is in Jukkasja vi in northern
Sweden. First constructed in 1989, it is built each winter season. An
estimated 600 tons of snow and ice, called “scice,” are used to construct
the hotel’s 32 rooms.
5
Swedes celebrate St. Lucia on December 13. The youngest daughter acts
as the family’s Lucia. Dressing before dawn in a long, white robe and
wearing a wreath of lighted candles and lingonberry branches on her
head, she wakes family members by singing. She serves them breakfast in bed,
giving them the traditional Lucia Day fare of hot coffee and buns fl vored with
saffron called Lucia cats (lussekatt). Recently, star boys have been added to the
festivities. They, too, wear long white robes, but pointed hats decorated with
stars adorn their heads instead of wreaths of candles.
3
AT A GLANCE
Norwegian Sea
Gulf of
Bothnia
Skaggerak
Baltic Sea
4
OFFICIAL NAME: Kingdom of Sweden
LOCATION: Sweden is part of the Scandinavian
Peninsula in northern Europe. About 15% of
Sweden lies above the Arctic Circle. Sweden
is between Norway and Finland. The North
Sea forms the country’s western boundary;
the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Bothnia lie to the
east; and two narrow arms of the North Sea
called Skagerrak and Kattegat separate the
Scandinavian Peninsula from Denmark.
TERRAIN: The northern two-thirds is
mountainous. Southern Sweden is the most
low-lying with fertile land.
CLIMATE: Winters in the north are cold and
severe. The southern regions experience less
severe winters and warm summers.
AREA: 173,860 square miles (450,295 square
kilometers)
CAPITAL: Stockholm
POPULATION: 10.48 million (2022 estimate)
GOVERNMENT: Constitutional monarchy
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Swedish
OFFICIAL RELIGION: Church of Sweden
(Lutheran)
ETHNIC GROUPS: Swedish 80.3%, Syrian 1.9%,
Iraqi 1.4%, Finnish 1.4%, other 15% (2020
estimate)
5
CRITTER CORNER
What does
the fox say?
White in the winter and
brown in the summer—
the artic fox’s coat
changes color to match
its surroundings.
The Arctic Fox
Description and
Adaptations
SMALL BUT MIGHTY People use the phrase “sly
as a fox” for a reason. Foxes
by Pat Betteley
are smart, storing extra
A food under rocks for later or
lone arctic fox trots across a
following polar bears to eat
white, treeless tundra in
the leftover scraps from their
northern Sweden, hungry for a
kill. They are fast, sprinting
meal. She can’t see her prey, a up to 30 miles per hour. And
they are adorable. The fox’s
lemming (a small rodent) that nests under
beautiful white coat acts as
the snow, but she can hear it. She sniffs the
camouflage in the winter,
ground, leaps several feet straight into the while its brown/gray fur
blends with the tundra’s rocks
air, and dives into the snow, nose first. For
and plants in the summer.
a moment, her upside-down body is frozen
When it sleeps, it wraps its
in mid-air. Then she rights herself, her prey
long, fluffy tail around its
captured. Until spring arrives, this arctic body like a blanket, and an
extra layer of fur on its broad
fox will rely on many cold-weather
paws allows it to walk quietly
strategies to survive in the frozen tundra.
on ice and snow.
6
Cuteness aside, the arctic fox
is a hardy survivor, able to
withstand frigid Arctic
temperatures as low as -58
degrees F. Known to have the
best insulation of any animal,
its thick fur keeps its body a
toasty 104°F. It has excellent
hearing and a keen sense of
smell that can detect a carcass
(a dead body) left by a polar
bear from as far as 24 miles
away.
Does the fox belong to the cat
The artic fox uses
or dog family? You might guess
its bushy tail like
that it’s a type of cat because a blanket.
both species have pupils with
vertical slits and some foxes can than 200. Climate change is
climb trees. Or maybe it’s a type thought to be the main
FOXY FAST
of dog, with its canine teeth culprit. With warmer
FACTS
suited to grabbing onto and The Arctic Fox temperatures, there is less
holding prey. It is neither cat nor » C ommon name: snow cover, so the arctic fox’s
Arctic fox, AKA white
dog. The arctic fox belongs to its light coat is not effective
fox, polar fox, snow
own group—Vulpes lagopus, fox camouflage. The larger red
which means “hairy-footed fox.” »  Scientificname: fox is outcompeting the arctic
Vulpes lagopus
Arctic foxes live in arctic- fox in Scandinavia. Because it
»  Diet: Omnivore—
tecturally elaborate dens. Their lemmings, mice, is a more omnivorous eater,
voles, small birds,
complex tunnel systems are the red fox can eat human
carrion (dead
mazes with as many as 100 animals), eggs, dairy, trash it finds along mountain
insects, berries, or
entrances to help them escape roads. Also, insects that are
food found in human
predators. Some of the dens are trash now surviving farther north
» Group names: Males
centuries old and have housed are eating the plants in the
are called dogs.
many generations of foxes. Females are called tundra, which affects the fox’s
vixens. Groups of
habitat and limits the
foxes are called
Conservation Status skulks or leashes. numbers and types of animals
»  Predators: Polar
In general, the arctic fox is they can eat.
bears, wolves, golden
considered a species of “least eagles, humans Let’s hope these small
concern” around the coldest »  Size: The head and masters at finding food and
body are about 18 to
parts of the Arctic. However, in surviving extreme weather
26.75 inches long;
the tail itself can be
Norway, Sweden, and Finland, will be able to outwit the
up to 13.75 inches
the population is severely biggest threat of all—climate
»  Weight: 6.5 to 17
endangered, numbering less pounds change.
7
Welcome to
SSSwwweeedddeeennn
Norway, Sweden, and
Finland make up the
Scandinavian Peninsula.
8