This book is intended to encourage a friendly attitude towards people of
other lands. Fast steamers, airplanes, and the radio have made the
people of all lands neighbors, and American boys and girls must become
better acquainted with their neighbors across the seas if they are to
understand and appreciate them. Through material such as is given in
Near the Top of the World, children may come to know interesting and
likable people of another country, and to regard them as people like
themselves, not as queer or amusing.
The author traveled widely in Scandinavia for the purpose of gathering
material. She watched the people, especially the children, at work and
play. She visited homes, schools, libraries, farms, saeters, Lapp
settlements. She talked with teachers, librarians, and other citizens of
Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and they assisted her generously in seeing
and interpreting life in their lands.
The pictures which illustrate the stories are photographs, some of them
taken by the author. For other pictures she is grateful to the
American-Swedish News Exchange, New York, the Norwegian Government
Railway, New York, and the Danish Government Railway, New York.
The vocabulary is simple and although the book was written for no
specific grade, the sentence structure has been adapted to third grade
reading. The stories were tested in third grade classrooms and revised
to remove any difficulties that were encountered. The vocabulary was
checked with the Gates Word List and the Thorndike Word List with the
following results: 74 per cent of the words in the random sampling fall
in the Gates 1500 list; 84 per cent in Thorndike’s first 2000 list, 90
per cent in Thorndike’s first 3000 list, and 94 per cent in Thorndike’s
first 5000 list. Very few unusual words have been used.
The material has numerous possibilities for classroom use:
(a) As a Social Science Reader
The book will be of special service to teachers seeking material for
units of study on other lands for social science classes. Curriculum
makers for elementary schools have set up such units to break away from
the more formal units of geography and history, but have found their
attempts to be only partially successful because of the dearth of
suitable reading material to put into the hands of the pupils.
(b) As Supplementary to Geography
Schools having separate courses in geography will find Near the Top of
the World a valuable supplementary reader. From the story Greeting a
Strange Sun to the story Planting of the Flag of Norway at the Bottom of
the Earth, there are experiences to help children interpret how people
make their ways of living fit the land in which they live.
(c) As Supplementary to History
In the folklore, the Viking tales, the descriptions of castles and
open-air museums, the readers of Near the Top of the World see history
as the background for the present-day life of Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark.
(d) For Recreational Reading
Boys and girls, always interested in children of other lands, will find
the book one to read just for fun. It will be especially liked by the
children in America who are of Scandinavian origin or who have relatives
in the Scandinavian countries.
In whatever way the book is used, the readers cannot fail to make
interesting discoveries about the Scandinavian countries that have so
generously contributed to American citizenship.