Flat Stanley books have entertained children and parents alike for half a century. The captivating stories author Jeff Brown created alongside Tomi Ungerer’s illustrations conjured a world of adventure and fun. Ideal for young readers, the Flat Stanley picture books still rank among the world’s most popular children’s books. People across generations own Flat Stanley books and adore them.
What started as a kids’ book you might read aloud as a bedtime story quickly turned into a global phenomenon. Today, thousands of young subscribers enjoy the series on the HarperCollins Publisher website featuring stories, games, activity templates, and classroom fun. The books are available in French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.
This article provides a background to the original Jeff Brown Flat Stanley Series and Flat Stanley’s Worldwide Adventures by other authors.
A review of Flat Stanley (1964)
Originally published nearly sixty years ago, the first book with the main character in its title sets the story’s backdrop and introduces the main protagonists. Stanley and his brother Arthur receive a bulletin board from their father and hang it above Stanley’s bed. It falls down on top of Stanley during the night and flattens him. He wakes up like a cut-out of himself, 4 feet tall, 1 foot wide, and half an inch thick.
After getting over the initial shock, Stanley enjoys his new shape and finds ways to make it work. Although a little jealous, Arthur plays along, and the two brothers get up to all sorts of mischief. When they learn that museum thieves are wreaking havoc at the local gallery, Stanley agrees to help catch them by posing as a painting. And sure enough, he helps catch the robbers and gets his picture in the local newspaper.
But the novelty of fame soon wears off, leaving only one thing on Stanley’s wishlist: returning to his normal shape. All ends well when Arthur uses a bicycle pump to blow him back up.
Series overview
Jeff Brown kickstarted the original book series in 1964, only adding the second book almost 20 years later. In total, Brown wrote six Flat Stanley books. Here are the titles making up the original series:
Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure by Jeff Brown
- Flat Stanley (1964)
- Stanley and the Magic Lamp (1983)
- Stanley in Space (1990)
- Stanley’s Christmas Adventure (1993)
- Invisible Stanley (1995)
- Stanley, Flat Again! (2003)
After his passing in 2003, other children’s book authors continued the Flat Stanley stories by creating the Flat Stanley’s Worldwide Adventures series. New York Times bestselling author Sara Pennypacker wrote four Flat Stanley books, Josh Greenhut wrote eight, and children’s author Kate Egan has so far written three Flat Stanley books.
The illustrations of all the Flat Stanley’s Adventures stories are by Macky Pamintuan.
Flat Stanley’s Worldwide Adventures
- The Big Mountain Adventure (2009) by Sara Pennypacker
- The Great Egyptian Grave Robbery (2009) by Sara Pennypacker
- The Japanese Ninja Surprise (2009) by Sara Pennypacker
- The Epic Canadian Expedition (2009) by Sara Pennypacker
- The Amazing Mexican Secret (2010) by Josh Greenhut
- The African Safari Discovery (2011) by Josh Greenhut
- The Flying Chinese Wonders (2011) by Josh Greenhut
- The Australian Boomerang Bonanza (2011) by Josh Greenhut
- The US Capital Commotion (2011) by Josh Greenhut
- Showdown at the Alamo (2014) by Josh Greenhut
- Framed in France (2014) by Josh Greenhut
- Escape to California (2014) by Josh Greenhut
- The Midnight Ride of Flat Revere (2016) by Kate Egan
- On a Mission for Her Majesty (2017) by Kate Egan
- Lost in New York (2018) by Kate Egan
A movie adaptation of the children’s favorite has long been in the pipeline, with Fox hiring J.P. Lavin and Chad Damiani to write a live-action screenplay back in 2014. The first book’s story has also been into several musicals by different theatre companies.
About Jeff Brown
Before creating the Flat Stanley book series, author Jeff Brown had already worked as an editor in Hollywood and a writer in New York. His first outing into the arts was as a child actor before working on movies as an assistant producer and story consultant. As he loved writing, he became a fiction contributor to The New Yorker, Esquire, Life, and The Saturday Evening Post. Eventually, Warner Brothers took him on as a senior editor.
The idea for the Stanley Lambchop stories came from Jeff Brown’s sons, who one night asked him what would happen if a bulletin board fell on them. Brown subsequently sat down and wrote the first Flat Stanley book before adding five more books to the original series.
Inspired by the book, third-grade elementary school teacher Dale Hubert set up the Flat Stanley Project to encourage kids to write letters. The idea was that schools would sign up and then read the first book before creating Flat Stanley cut-outs. Each child then writes a Stanley journal documenting all the adventures for a few days. As the next step, the kids mail their cut-out Stanleys and journals to each other, with each child continuing the story.
Listen to Flat Stanley audiobooks with Speechify
While Flat Stanley books are available on websites like Amazon, if they enjoy someone reading to them instead, they can listen to audiobooks on Speechify. The service is available on Android, iPhone, and all other devices in 14 different languages.
Speechify features several Flat Stanley titles from both series, including a Flat Stanley Audio Collection and titles like Flat Stanley Goes Camping and Flat Stanley and the Haunted House. If you need a great bedtime story for your kids, check out Adventure Series books like The Mount Rushmore Calamity or Framed in France.
FAQ
Is Flat Stanley based on a true story?
Seeing as the stories feature a boy flattened by a bulletin board, it couldn’t be.
What level reading is Flat Stanley?
The Flat Stanley books belong to reading level 2 and are suitable for 7-9 year-olds.
What is the average length of a Flat Stanley book?
An average Flat Stanley chapter book takes just over half an hour to read and has fewer than 100 pages.
What is Flat Stanley’s family like?
Stanley’s parents encourage him to make the best of his flatness while helping him to understand Arthur’s jealousy. In the first book, they allow him to spend the night at the museum to catch the thieves.
