Flat Stanley

People all over the world love Flat Stanley.

Who's Flat Stanley?

He's a cartoon character who in Jeff Brown's 1964 book got flattened by a bulletin board and now can go on all kinds of adventures thanks to his flatness. Soon he's flying like a kite and catching art thieves by pretending to be a painting on a wall.

Brown wrote five more Flat Stanley books before his death in 2003. In 1995, a Canadian schoolteacher started the Flat Stanley Project, in which participating schools exchange Flat Stanleys and document their travels before returning them.

Now people mail Flat Stanleys to friends everywhere.

Recently a German woman named Heike Reischl visited Oak Ridge Middle School to tell the students about her journeys with the Flat Stanley sent her by Oak Ridge student Hunter Seyer. He's the son of Reischl's friend Lisa Seyer. Reischl had taken photos of his Flat Stanley vacationing with her through Germany, Austria and Italy.

Oak Ridge teacher Bridget Watson's 23 sixth-grade students are sending Flat Stanleys in camouflage uniforms to soldiers in Iraq. Their classroom is decorated in Flat Stanleys.

Flat Stanley has become a pop icon. Don't be surprised if you see someone with a Flat Stanley being photographed. It's for a good cause: expanding the imaginations of students all the over the world.