Thomas Stoddard., age 9, of Natick, Mass., for his question:

Is North America bigger than South America?

You can see the two Americas on your beautiful gift globe. North America begins at the top of the globe near the north pole. South America reaches almost to the south pole at the bottom of the globe. The narrow waist line between north and South America is Central America.

The two Americas look almost the same size on the globe, but north America is a little bigger than South America. The size of our America is about 9.4 million square miles. The size of South America is about 7.4 million square miles. And a square mile, remember, measures one mile along each of its four sides.