Flat Stanley

Educator / Fictional Character
Date Of Birth:
1 January 1964
Best Known As:
Children's globetrotting fictional character

Name at birth: Stanley Lambchop

The central character in a series of children's books dating back to 1964, Flat Stanley has a second career as a globetrotting educational tool, thanks to the Internet's Flat Stanley Project. In the original book, by writer Jeff Brown and illustrator Tomi Ungerer, Stanley Lambchop wakes up one morning flattened by his bulletin board. His positive attitude helps him cope with the physical disadvantage and propels him into a series of adventures. Inspired by Flat Stanley's trip to California inside an envelope, Canadian educator Dale Hubert created the Flat Stanley Project for his grade three students and in 1995 put it on the Web. Classrooms around the world exchange cut-out Flat Stanleys and keep journals as a way for kids to learn about other parts of the world. Over the years Flat Stanley has become a pop culture phenomenon as well as an educational tool. He has "met" world leaders such as Bill Clinton, made appearances on television shows such as The West Wing and Jeopardy!, been aboard the U.S. space shuttle Discovery and made trips all over the globe, including to Mt. Everest and the Taj Mahal.

Extra Credit:

On the red carpet at the 2005 Oscar ceremony, actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood flashed a Flat Stanley for photographers… Jeff Brown (born Richard Chester Brown, d. 3 December 2003) was a New York magazine editor and short story writer whose other Flat Stanley books include Stanley and the Magic Lamp, Stanley in Space and Stanley, Flat Again!

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