Has anyone seen Flat Stanley?
 

Recently, my friend's niece in Nebraska mailed a "Flat Stanley" to him (here in Hawaii) for a class project. Apparently Flat Stanley is a children's book, and the current rage in classrooms is to mail him to another destination. The recipient must then write a story about Flat Stanley's adventures in their city and mail him back. It's a great way to help people connect to each other and learn about new places.

My friend took Stanley all over Oahu and took pictures of him in different spots--with a couple of surfer girls on the north shore, up at Diamond Head, with a tourist in front of Iolani Palace, etc. Needless to say, his niece was thrilled when she got her Flat Stanley back with an entire vacation laid out.

Have any of you seen Flat Stanley? If so, what kind of adventure did he experience with you in your city? Just wondering if there's anything unique Stanley did that a Fodorite could try.

There was a Canadian equivalent called Flat Mark. About a year ago, the Prime Minister posed for a newspaper photo with him; a classroom had sent him off to Ottawa. The Prime Minister said that Flat Mark got more work done during his week in the nation's capital than many Members of Parliament.

I just returned from a conference in Atlantic City, and there was a group of women with a paper Flat Stanley, but I didn't know it was for a young child. They were taking photos and saying, 'see grandma loose money at the slot machine', 'see grandma get drunk at dinner in Trump TajMahal' , 'see grandma at the boring seminar'....very funny....

Two years ago our grandson sent us Flat Stanley from school and explained the story. We lived in Indaina at the time, he lived in Ohio. I was an instructor at our Beauty School. I took Flat Stanley and a camera to school and took pictures of him with the students getting a perm,getting a shampoo, sitting in class, etc. The story I wrote was that he was looking for a bag of lollipops. He had his picture taken with all the manikins, in the computer keyboard, everywhere looking for lollipops. It was a lot of fun! My students loved it and my grandson loved getting it back.

My son's Flat Stanley is currently at his Uncle's condo in Delray Beach, Florida, visiting various East coast locale's on a Harley. 8-)

A friend traveling to Europe with us took her niece's Flat Stanley. We posed on the Eiffel Tower, all over Amsterdam (we covered his eyes in the Red Light District), he rode a boat in the lake in Hyde Park in London. We laughed a lot about the things he did.
Maybe my favorite was the picture of him face down in a fresh cow pie in a field in Holland. He tripped over a wooden shoe and landed there.

My nephew's son (my great-nephew?) sent Flat Stanley to visit us in Texas. We took him to the Fort Worth Stock Yards where he had his picture taken with some real cowboys, while riding a longhorn steer and having a drink in a saloon. We had so much fun with him that we asked him to accompany us on a trip to Costa Rica the following week. Flat Stanley had his picture taken at the airline check-in counter (lucky he had his passport with him), having cocktails with the Flight Attendant (he was upgraded to first class), trecking through the rain forests, at the top of a volcano, sitting atop of a bag of coffee beans while visiting a coffee plantation, riding in in a dug out canoe through the Darien Jungle and while passing through the locks at the Panama Canal before he was sealed up in his envelope and went back home.

How cute and how fun! My husband said he saw that Clint Eastwood had Flat Stanley on stage with him at the recent Oscar's.

Clint Eastwood did indeed have Flat Stanley with him as he walked up the red carpet at the Oscar's.

I think this is a great project.

But, how do you buy a Flat Stanley? That is the part I do not understand!

hey, waitaminnit sunnyboy.....is Flat Stanley old enough to drink?
;)

LoveItaly, I know you can buy the book on Amazon, but I'm unclear about the actual traveling Stanley...I get the impression schoolkids make them? Am I wrong?

Every Flat Stanley that I have seen has come from a kindergarden/elementary school student. I believe the teacher hands them out, students then color and cut them out, and send them on their adventures. This also helps them with reading, writing, and geography.

This sure brings back memories! When my children were in preschool, their classes did the Flat Stanley's and the kids had a ball with it. Each child had Flat Stanley for a week and were encouraged to travel with him as much as possible. The kids really enjoyed hearing all the unique places he went.

One of my classmates walked into my exercise class on Mercer Island this week and started taking photos of a cute little flat guy propped up next to the free weights and in the bucket of balls. I asked her who her friend was and she told us he was Flat Stanley. Her niece, who lives in Ohio, I think, had sent him to Seattle for a week's visit.

Flat Stanley is created by the child and sent on his merry way. Sometimes they even have to make and pack a suitcase for him. Fun to see a kindergartener create a Master Card.

Flat Stanely is cool. He gets to go everywhere.

In response to MelisaHI - I didn't mean to mislead anybody but obviously Flat Stanley was drinking Shirley Temples, his great-uncle, however, took up the slack.

My son sent a Flat Stanley to his favorite Nascar driver a couple of years ago. Flat Stanley was returned with tire marks on him and a note that said "Flat Stanley enjoyed the Daytona 500 but was run over near the pit. Fortunately, since he was already flat, he sustained no injuries".

Flat Stanley came to our house from our nephew in Redmond,WA. While he was here we sent postcards back to WA from Alcatraz,Lombard Street, Chinatown and the Golden Gate Bridge. He also went to Berkeley and sent postcards of people in tie-dyed shirts and a real peace button.

Flat Stanley even made his way up to the Napa Valley. He sent a postcard of flowers in the valley rather than of his "relations" sipping good red wine:)

Yes, Flat Stanley can be made by the child (or anyone young-at heart!)or you can download a copy from the website FlatStanley.com.

There are great photos of different people with their Flat Stanley's on amazing adventures on this site.

Did this project with my class also. Fun!

Clint did have one at the Oscars...there is a photo on the site.

My surrogate grandson from northern Utah sent me his Flat Stanley a year or so ago and I took him for a day at Newport Beach and Balboa Island. The little devil even had his picture taken with one of the fabled bikini-clad California Girls

Thanks all for the info. What a fun project!

You have no idea how much I wish I were Flat Stanley! Although I have a few reservations about traveling inside a suitcase or being restricted to Shirley Temples.

Oh Patrick, LOL, only you would come up with that throught!!!

Well do you think regarding the way airline cram us into planes that being crammed into luggage would be much worse?

Now about the Shirley Temples. Maybe if some vodka were added -- you think?

I've just been asked to host Flat Stanley and I'm looking forward to taking him to Yosemite.

Utahtea

my nephew's school did their own version and i took flat kevin (they pasted their pics on the body... ) to arizona with me. he had a blast. and you had to take a pic of yourself and flat kevin where you were traveling.

I think they used to have the female version -- flat Selma. But there were charges of sexual harrassment over referring to her upper anatomy that way.

A friend of mine is a teacher in Texas and her colleague's class was doing a Flat Stanley project. They were trying to collect Flat Stanley adventures from all over, so I told her I'd do one. One of the kids sent me a homemade Flat Stanley. I live in NYC, so I took him all over - to the Empire State Building, to Central Park where the carriage horses are, and other recognizable sites. Then I wrote up a letter about where he'd gone. It was a lot of fun, and I got a cute letter back from the child who'd sent him to me.

he arrived in woodstock, va yesterday.

You guys are hilarious! Now I want one of my relatives to send me a Flat Stanley, too!!!!

I love the little guy!
My kids sent him out when they were little, and now I get my neices and nephews. We got pictures of him all dressed in ski clothes for winter in Vermont, collecting eggs, sitting in a pine, etc. The ones sent to me visited the Concord State House, and then went off to visit friends around the world and report on countries all over Europe, Australia, and Japan. Because of this... we see a lot of Flat Stanley! :) (When I mail him overseas, I usually buy and include a copy of the paperback so people who end up receiving him know what the heck it's about! )

I sent Flat Stanley back to our grandson in a scrapbook I made complete with story and all his pictures of his adventure. He still has that scrapbook in his room and we look at it every now and then. That was 2-3 years ago.

Flat Stanley came to Colonial Williamsburg and posed with a couple colonial interpretors (I think they thought we were nuts)and some sheep and put his head in the stocks. Poor Flat Stanley!

F Stanley came to Colo last year. He hung around all over town, got to ride a Wells Fargo Stage, went South Park, Fairplay, got in a fight, thrown in jail and then had to leave the country.
He is back this year and went to the tailors and had several sets of clothes made, Saint Patrick's Party, Church, and seems quieter this year. His adventures are pictured on:
http://thelundgrens.us

Flat Stanley was at the top of the Statue of Liberty last week. He was getting wet in the rain.

I am an elementary PE teacher and this week I asked my students to tell me about their spring break sometime during class.

A kindergarten girl told me that she enjoyed a trip to her granparent's house in Florida then revealed that she wasn't supposed to tell me that because her mom called her in sick a couple of the days the week before break.

However, the biggest secret she revealed to me is that her grandmother knows FAT Stanley. (I just bet she does...)

This sounds so fun! I'll ask my kindergardener grandson if he's heard of it. Flat Stanley would have a ball here in Las Vegas!

LOL bashfulLV,
"Flat Stanly at the slots"
"Flat Stanly at the crap tables"
"Flat Stanly hitching a ride home broke " :D

My cousin had a Flat Stanley school project the year that I got married. Flat Stanley went to Cancun with my husband and I on our honeymoon. We took Flat Stanley to Chichen Itza but forgot to take pictures. By the time we got back home we called him Humid Stanley because of the climate! LOL!

No Stanley, but Flat Emily visited me last year. Emily went to the beach where she met a surfer girl who took her out to catch a few sets. (Emily forgot to bring her swimsuit, but she was in plastic.) She went on a fabulous shopping trip to Beverly Hills and flew home wearing a new outfit and carrying her new pet, Flat Pug (aka Pepperoni).

From reading all of the Flat Stanley adventures here, do you wonder if it really is a kid's learning experience or has someone creatively developed this ploy to get prefectly sensible adults to act like nuts while going to extreme measures to take their photos with a paperdoll? Just kidding.

My cousin sent Flat Stanley to our aunt, who took FS to San Francisco. Since FS ws unprepared for bad weather she found it necessary to convert her snack-sized cereal box into a rain coat, with matching boots, for FS.

I wish my kids had been given a FS. I feel left out.

Our Flat Stanley went by first class mail to Chicago where Uncle Mark took him to the Field Museum to see Sue, the world famous Tyrannosaurus rex. Sadly, however, Stanley began to feel ill. Good thing Uncle Mark is a doctor. Stanley was transported by ambulance (well, he got his picture taken in an ambulance) to the hospital and given a brain scan. You guessed it, his brain wave was . . . flat.