Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley (1964) Jeff Brown, Mamouth

ISBN: 0-7497-0137-4

Stanley is a boy who lives with his brother Arthur, and his parents, Mr. And Mrs Lambchop. The premise of the tale is as follows; a huge and heavy notice board falls on Stanley as he is lying in his bed. This squashes him flat, and he is about as deep as a piece of paper. He remains this way, and even the doctor says that all they can do is monitor him. He mother gets his clothes altered by a tailor.

Rather than let this get him down, Stanley has fun seeing what he can now he is flat. He can go through the gap at the bottom of doorways, and rescues his mother’s ring from down a drain. His brother becomes quite jealous of these new abilities. At one point, Arthur even tries to make himself flat by piling heavy books on top of his chest. He is stopped by his parents and sent to bed.  They explain to Stanley that his younger brother is jealous, and ask him to be nice to Arthur. Stanley does this by volunteering to let Arthur fly him like a kite, so that he will be more popular!

Stanley becomes a hero when he poses as a painting in the art gallery to foil the plans of a gang of sneak thieves. He ends up with his name and picture in the paper, and he is very happy. After a while people stop giving him positive attention, and they point, stare, and laugh at the ‘flat boy’. Stanley becomes very unhappy, and it is Arthur, desperate to make up for leaving Stanley trapped in the tree, who saves the day. He blows Stanley up with a bike pump, and all is well.

Stanley’ parents also post him via airmail to his pen friend’s house in the school holidays. The hundreds of Flat Stanley projects in schools take up this theme, as does the international Flat Stanley Project based online. Pupils read the story, and they all create their own Flat Stanley on paper. The children are all encouraged to post their Stanley to friends and relatives around the world. People take their photograph with Stanley and send a written account back to the child along with the photograph. The website has many of these stories and pictures from across the globe. I first heard of this book when a friend of mine received a Flat Stanley from her niece in America.

Throughout the book there is reference to good manners, tolerance and respect. “Mr. And Mrs Lambchop were both very much in favour of politeness and careful speech”. This is an important message for children, and I think that it was done in a very sensitive and clever way. Making good manners something that is important to characters that are so appealing to children can only help to get the message across.

The message on page 58 is obvious and even a little trite, but it is aimed at children;

“Shame on them,” Mrs Lambchop said. “It is wrong to dislike people for their shapes. Or their religion, for that matter, or the colour of their skin.”

This book was written in America during the sixties, and that was a vitally important message. People were fighting for equality, and against discrimination. It is a little sad to say that some sections of society are still in need of that very same message.

The book is only short, but very engaging. The story is completely improbable, but so charming that I really did not mind. The popularity of the book worldwide would indicate that many share my view. It is a useful little book that schools have used to promote reading, but also manners, tolerance, and world awareness. I wish I had read this book when my children were smaller, as I would have done our own Flat Stanley project. Keep your eyes pealed for Stanley as he goes on his travels. He’ll be easy to spot, he’s the flat boy!


Find the official project at http://flatterworld.com/?nav=home