The Flat Stanley Collection by Jeff Brown and illustrated by Macky Pamintuan

Flat Stanley: my first approach with this fantastic character on 11/12/1997 when I received the letter from Maria a dear correspondent from the USA.
With her latest news and letter there was enclosed a letter   of one of her little relatives, Rebecca, asking for a picture or a postcard of the place where I lived in and the request of re-sending Flat Stanley to someone else in the world. I kept Flat Stanley that time as you can see.
No sure why :-) Maybe just I didn't know this character and I didn't know this project. Maybe I just liked this curious sunny character for re-sending it.

This year on March I was contacted by Trina from Kentucky another friend with a niece in the State of Washington. "Can I send you Flat Stanley? It's called in her case Flat Zadie, the name of my niece." I was enthusiastic: "Of course, please do that! I want to participate."
Once arrived Flat Zadie  I wrote down few lines about the place where I live in, I wrote my name and last name, and the day after with a postcard of Umbertide sent separately (that one flew in the school in Washington) I re-sent Flat Zadie in the new envelope at Trina.
I also took pictures for reassuring Trina I did it everything!

Time passed-by, months passed-by and my letter was received only after two months by Trina! In the while I fell in panic, contacted the post office, talked with some people who reassured me, exchanging e-mails with Trina.Thanks to Flat Zadie I discovered that Flat Stanley was a book.

A book... Why not to search for this one as well?

I discovered that trying to request this book was like to climbing a mountain and I decided to give up.
Recently I noticed a book from Harper Collins I want to read and review and I remembered...
"They have Flat Stanley! I am sure of it!" I thought and I asked to the publicist, very kind and  helpful if she could made me this pleasure as well.

Hooray! Close to me in the netbook I have The Flat Stanley Collection a box of four of the most important and hilarious stories written by Jeff Brown and illustrated by Macky Pamintuan: Flat Stanley His original adventure, Invisible Stanley, Stanley in Space, Stanley Flat Again.

You can't understand my enthusiasm!

So what can you expect from this eBooks of adventures? First of all the first eBook will introduce us Stanley. His last name is Lambchop :-) and he has a brother, Arthur. His dad is George, Mrs Lambchop is a very nice lady. One day they discovered that their son became flat.  Surprise was high but how can you stop to love your son also if he became flat? The family brought Stanley by the doctor, but the doc didn't find anything wrong in him. And now what to do?

Sure the life of Stanley, so flat became under many aspects simpler than before. He could travel in an envelope sent to California for spending some time with a friend of him. After the vacation Flat Stanley was just re-sent to his parents via envelope saving a lot of money spent in opposite case for an airplane ticket.
I guess that the idea of keeping Stanley traveling around the world was born thanks to this passage of the book. Not only: our little sunny hero can pass under doors, and can be really helpful thanks to his ability and flexibility for sorting out a myriad of little and big problems.

He will discover dangerous criminals and in an episode he will fly to the Space with a lot of surprises. He also talked with the President of the USA, ending up in newsmagazines thanks to his characteristic of being flat and he also became a hero when in particular Flat Stanley saved a "terrible" teen-ager under the ruins.

Flat Stanley will also live some serious crisis: why did it happen to me? Why did I become flat? He asked to himself and to his parents. He wanted to return to be normal because being special can be tiring and so a friend of him will help him with a special instrument.


Why reading Flat Stanley? It's first of all a quick reading, plenty of sunny illustrations but you mustn't think that it's just a light reading. The opposite.
First of all the meaning of "different" is analyzed under all the aspects, because Stanley when flat is different from the other children but accepted by everyone, at school, at home, into his family, by his brother. Plus there are thematic like help, generosity, attention,connections, without to forget the role of the media in our society so wonderfully well portrayed by the author.

I warmly suggest to your children all this book set, eBooks or physical ones suggesting at the parents  a discussion about the role of diversity and the role of being someone different in our society. Another topic I would suggest can be this one: how can we all better this world for better without to be Flat and giving the best or ourselves? Which are the important values of our life to cultivate and give importance at?

Now that schools are open I just hope that Flat Stanley will re-start to traveling in the world with the same enthusiasm, joy that this character brings with him in every adventure.

One of the most joyous and positive children's books I have ever read!

I thank Harper Collins for this eBook.



Anna Maria Polidori