Flat Stanley

by Jeff Brown, Scott Nash (Illustrator)

Overview

Meet Stanley Lambchop.

He's an ordinary boy with an extraordinary problem.

He's four feet tall, about a foot wide . . . oh, and half an inch thick.

At first being flat is fine.

It's fun going in and out of rooms simply by sliding under the door.

And it's exciting being mailed to your friends in California for a visit.

But it's not always easy being different, and soon Stanley wishes he could be just like everybody else.

Will he ever be normal again?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061129049
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/22/2006
Series:	Flat Stanley Series
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.25(w) x 11.75(h) x 0.34(d)
Lexile:	AD550L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Jeff Brown created the beloved character of Flat Stanley as a bedtime story for his sons. He has written other outrageous books about the Lambchop family, including Flat Stanley, Stanley and the Magic Lamp, Invisible Stanley, Stanley’s Christmas Adventure, Stanley in Space, and Stanley, Flat Again! You can learn more about Jeff Brown and Flat Stanley at www.flatstanleybooks.com.

Scott Nash has illustrated many books for children, including Betsy Who Cried Wolf! by Gail Carson Levine, Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp by Carol Diggory Shields, Over the Moon by Rachel Vail, and Oh, Tucker! by Steven Kroll. He lives with his wife, Nancy, and their dog, Zephyr, on Peaks Island, Maine.

Read an Excerpt

Flat Stanley 40th Anniversary Edition

Chapter One

The Big Bulletin Board

Breakfast was ready.

"I will go wake the boys," Mrs. Lambchop said to her husband, George Lambchop. Just then their younger son, Arthur, called from the bedroom he shared with his brother, Stanley.

"Hey! Come and look! Hey!"

Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop were both very much in favor of politeness and careful speech. "Hay is for horses, Arthur, not people," Mr. Lambchop said as they entered the bedroom. "Try to remember that."

"Excuse me," Arthur said. "But look!"

He pointed to Stanley's bed. Across it lay the enormous bulletin board that Mr. Lambchop had given the boys a Christmas ago so that they could pin up pictures and messages and maps. It had fallen, during the night, on top of Stanley.

But Stanley was not hurt. In fact, he would still have been sleeping if he had not been woken by his brother's shout.

"What's going on here?" he called out cheerfully from beneath the enormous board.

Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop hurried to lift it from the bed.

"Heavens!" said Mrs. Lambchop.

"Gosh!" said Arthur. "Stanley's flat!"

"As a pancake," said Mr. Lambchop. "Darndest thing I've ever seen."

"Let's all have breakfast," Mrs. Lambchop said. "Then Stanley and I will go see Dr. Dan and hear what he has to say."

In his office, Dr. Dan examined Stanley all over.

"How do you feel?" he asked. "Does it hurt very much?"

"I felt sort of tickly for a while after I got up," Stanley Lambchop said, "but I feel fine now."

"Well, that's mostly how it is with these cases," said Dr.Dan.

"We'll just have to keep an eye on this young fellow," he said when he had finished the examination. "Sometimes we doctors, despite all our years of training and experience, can only marvel at how little we really know."

Mrs. Lambchop said she thought Stanley's clothes would have to be altered by the tailor now, so Dr. Dan told his nurse to take Stanley's measurements.

Mrs. Lambchop wrote them down.

Stanley was four feet tall, about a foot wide, and half an inch thick.

Flat Stanley 40th Anniversary Edition. Copyright © by Jeff Brown. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Editorial Reviews

It's been almost four decades since a bulletin board first flattened little Stanley Lambchop and transformed him into a two-dimensional reader favorite. (Well, not exactly two-dimensional: He is half an inch thick!) Now Stanley pops again into sight, introducing a new generation of beginning readers to the hilarious adventures of a paper-thin hero.

Youngsters will welcome the return of favorite characters in an array of beginning chapter books. Stanley Lambchop deflates once more in Stanley, Flat Again, the sixth title in the series by Jeff Brown, illus. by Scott Nash. Whereas the hero flew as a kite in Flat Stanley, here he serves as a spinnaker to win a sailboat race. When a building collapses, he slips beneath the wreckage to save a classmate just before it tumbles down. A paperback version of Flat Stanley, also with illustrations by Nash, is being released simultaneously. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 3-Based on Jeff Brown's original story (HarperCollins, 1964), this oversize picture book condenses some of the adventures of the ever-popular character who was flattened by a bulletin board. Ending up four feet tall, a foot wide, and half-an-inch thick, Stanley discovers that being flat is not only novel (he can slip under cracks), but also exciting. He is mailed off to California in a large envelope; he can be flown like a huge kite; and one night, disguised as a shepherdess, he hides in a painting in the art museum and foils some thieves. Full-page, cartoon illustrations in watercolor and crayon enhance the story while remaining true to the original. This version of an old favorite will introduce a beloved character to a new generation of younger children. It should have wide appeal.-Sally R. Dow, Ossining Public Library, NY Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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