Quote of the day:
"We shouldn't teach great books, we should teach a love of reading."
- B. F. Skinner
January 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of Jeff Brown's beloved character, Flat Stanley, who has been entertaining young readers for generations ever since being flattened by a bulletin board that fell on him in his bedroom. Get to know Stanley and celebrate his amazing new books, activities and classroom projects.
You can print out a template of Flat Stanley and take him on your travels or vacations and snap photos with him at your destination.
Take a look at some of his adventures:
This is the cover of the original book....way back in 1964.
About the author:
Jeff Brown
Author profile
born
in New York, NY, The United States
January 01, 1926
died
December 03, 2003
gender
male
website
genre
About this author
Jeff Brown had worked in Hollywood and as an editor and writer in New York before creating Flat Stanley, a hero for the youngest readers whose adventures, with illustrations by Tomi Ungerer, were first published in 1964. Flat Stanley became the star of a series of perpetually popular books. The last, "Stanley, Flat Again!," was published the year he died. All together, Stanley's tales have sold nearly a million copies in the United States alone. The character's life extended further, as schoolchildren mailed cut-outs of him to their friends. In translation, he traveled to France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Israel, among other places.
Jeff Brown was born Richard Chester Brown. Originally a child actor, he became Jeff Brown because Actors Equity already had a Richard Brown as a member. A graduate of the Professional Children's School, he provided a child's voice in a radio drama and appeared onstage.
In Hollywood he worked for the producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and was a story consultant at Paramount. Preferring to write himself, he sold fiction and articles to national magazines while working at The New Yorker, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire and finally at Warner Books, where he was a senior editor until 1980. The idea for Stanley came to him one night at bedtime when his sons J. C. and Tony were young and stalling for time. One asked what would happen if the big bulletin board on the wall were to fall on J. C., and Mr. Brown said he would most likely wake up flat. That led to speculation about what such a life might be like. After writing "Flat Stanley, " Mr. Brown went on to "Stanley and the Magic Lamp," "Stanley in Space," "Stanley's Christmas Adventure," "Invisible Stanley" and finally "Stanley, Flat Again!"
The Flat Stanley Project was started in 1995 by Dale Hubert, a third grade schoolteacher in London, Ontario, Canada. It is meant to facilitate letter-writing by schoolchildren to each other as they document where Flat Stanley has gone with them. The Project provides an opportunity for students to make connections with students of other member schools who've signed up with the project. Students begin by reading the book and becoming acquainted with the story. Then they make paper "Flat Stanleys" (or pictures of the Stanley Lambchop character) and keep a journal for a few days, documenting the places and activities in which Flat Stanley is involved. The Flat Stanley and the journal are mailed to other people who are asked to treat the figure as a visiting guest and add to his journal, then return them both after a period of time. In 2005, more than 6,500 classes from 48 countries took part in the Flat Stanley Project.
BOOK REVIEW RATING: 9 (Close to perfection!)
If you or your child are not familiar with these books you need be. They are a must to read and have in your collection. Any book that can survive 50 years and still keep on going is a treasure and a classic. I highly, highly recommend these books to you.
Read on and read always! Have a great day everyone.
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