Flat Stanley and the Magic Lamp

This week I read book two of the Flat Stanley series.

        The book starts off a year after Stanley had been flattened. Arthur and Stanley were up in their room doing homework, and often became side tracked. When on the beach, Stanley found a teapot that washed up to shore. Stanley was trying to make it shine by rubbing the teapot. All of a sudden it started to puff! Puff! Puff! All of a sudden a scary cloud appeared. The Genie introduced himself as Prince Fawzi Mustafa Aslan Mirza Mele Namerd Haraz, but he said to call him Prince Haraz. I thought it was super cute of Stanley to run out to the living room to ask his parents permission to ask the Genie his wishes.

      Arthur was still freaked out by this whole event. A Genie was in his room, and Arthur was under the bed in fear. The Genie assured Arthur that everything was alright. The first wish the boys wished for was for their homework to be done, because their parents did say it had to be finished before they could wish for anything. Out popped a basket, named Askit Basket, that talked like a sports announcer on TV  He told them the answers and printed out a copy. Arthur then asked for his paper to be finished, then printed a paper with his hand writing on it. They then asked for a lion, and then changed their mind mid-wish to an elephant, so it came out to be a liophant.

     They had a family outing to the local park. They were showing the Prince Haraz the sights and Mrs. Lambchop was talking about what it might be like to be famous. With a slight nod from Stanley to the Genie, her wish was granted. A tour bus full of people, stopped and everyone rushed her asking for her autograph and to take pictures with her. She was interviewed by local and national tv stations, and magazines. There was a pro tennis player Tom, and he was growing very jealous of the attention Mrs. Lambchop was receiving. Mr. Lambchop played a match against Tom, and lost terribly. Prince Haraz and the rest of the family felt sorry for Mr. Lambchop, so they made him a really good tennis player. He did a rematch with Tom the professional tennis player, and won!

    After a long day at the local park, the brother's were upstairs getting ready for bed. Arthur was a big jealous, because he was not getting any attention and never really had a "true" wish. Stanley allowed him one wish, and he wished to be the strongest man alive. His wish was granted and he lifted up the desk in the room, like it was paper. Realizing he should be lifting bigger things, since he was the world's strongest man, they asked to be able to fly. They all three, including the Prince Haraz, zoomed out the window and flew past airplanes, and stopped crime on a cruise ship. Arthur was able to use his strength by freeing the captain and pushing the helicopter back down on the ship to get the robbers out of the helicopter.

The book ends with everyone in the boys' bedroom. Their parents were freaked out, when they came up to the room and the window was open and no one to be found. Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop told them they had to reverse all their wishes. Luckily they had only wished for seven things, and had a maximum of fifteen wishes. So with reversing everything, they had one last wish. Arthur told Stanley to wish that the Genie would be set free to be with his friends. Prince Haraz was shocked, no one in the history has never wished for a Genie to be set free. The boys went to bed, and the parents kissed them goodnight.

In this book we found out that Mrs. Lambchops real name is Harrett, and Mr. Lambchop's name is George.

Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown

I chose the book, because in grade school my class did the Flat Stanley Project, and I want to incorporate that into my classroom one day. I even have made flat people to take on vacations. This past spring break, my church took its annual mission trip to New Orleans, and Pastor Roger was unable to go for the first time, so I had the bright idea of making Flat Roger. Flat Roger had way too much fun, he was out of control most of the time!

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Stanley Lambchop was a regular boy, one night when he was sleeping a enormous bulletin board fell on Stanley and caused him to be flat. Stanley was not hurt, and actually never woke up from the bulletin board. His parents took him to Dr. Dan to be examined to make sure nothing was wrong with him. Stanley was now four feet tall, about a foot wide, and a half an inch thick now.

Being flat took some time getting used to. He enjoyed in and out of rooms, when the doors were closed, by lying on the floor and sliding through the crack. His parents thought it was the silliest thing, but were proud that he took his difference and enjoyed being who he had become. Stanley's brother Arthur, was jealous and often tried doing what Stanley was doing, but never succeeded, because he was an average boy, and not flat like Stanley. Stanley used being flat to his advantage, he did tasks that normal people could not do, sliding through the bars of a grating and dangling by a shoe string, to retrieve his mother's ring. A few police men stopped and called Mrs. Lambchop cuckoo, and she replied "People should think twice before making rude remarks." I love this because, this is so true! You simply cannot say someone is crazy, because they are different, since that is who they are. We are all not the same people, we are all different and crazy in our own ways.

Stanley had a friend Thomas who moved to California, and his mom said it was too expensive to fly, so he slide himself into an envelope and was mailed. He was able to spend his vacation with his friend, for a nice affordable price and was sent back home. This is how the Flat Stanley Project will begin, when I am reading this book to my students.

As time goes on, Arthur becomes more and more jealous of Stanley and the attention he is receiving. Arthur even goes to the extent of laying on the floor and placing books on top of himself, so he too can be flat. After a few incidents, Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop talked to Stanley about his brother's behavior and they suggested to help him by being nice, since he was the big brother. Stanley decided to help his brother out by being a kite, since his brother really wanted to fly a kite. Stanley did all sorts of tricks in the air, and his brother had many people coming up to him. He brother was finally the show off with the attention.

Stanley also used his flatness to help an art gallery owner catch thieves  by pretending to be a painting in the museum. He was able to spot them, and alerted the police. The next day his face was all over the newspapers. After awhile, he grew tired of always being spotted and started to be made fun of. While his brother was comforting him, Arthur had a wild idea. Use an air pump to inflate Stanley, so he could be round again. After a few pumps, Stanley was normal again! The book ended when everyone said goodnight and they all went to sleep.

This was a fantastic book! I am really excited to read the rest of the series and come up with ideas for my future classroom to incorporate this book into lessons. This book can go in many directions from kindness to geography and exploring the world. The options are endless!