Never Give Flat Stanley to a Cartoonist
You guys ever heard of this thing called “Flat Stanley”? It’s this class project for elementary school students where they mail a paper doll to an adult and instruct him or her to show the doll around town, take photographs, and send the whole thing back to the students can so they can, most likely, be bored to tears.
Well last month I learned something about my six-year old niece – she apparently has my home address.
Boom! There it was, waiting for me in my mailbox – an envelope containing the paper doll (named “Flat Blake” by the class), a letter of request by some kid in my niece’s class (horrible penmanship BTW), and a form for me to fill in, detailing our adventure. It was like being the biographer for a tiny comatose man.
So, rather than putting any effort into it, I decided instead to just scan Flat Blake, do a little Photoshop nonsense, and print the whole shebang on photo paper. Here’s what I sent back to the class:
The initial letter I received said the class would put my pictures on display. Not too long ago my mom visited my niece’s school and I asked her to look for it. Here’s the photo she sent back:
I’m looking forward to http://www.flatblakemartini.com/ !
Skip the kid’s handwriting – he could only be 6 years old after all. Rather, excoriate the teacher for using Comic Sans in the form letter!
I love it. 🙂 When Flat Stanley came all the way to Australia from California we took him to a local wildlife sanctuary, where he was almost savaged by a kangaroo while we tried to take a photo.
I think Flat Blake had a much more exciting adventure.
Coming out of lurking to say this is hands-down the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while!
One thing I’ve learned about you…you’re a horrible uncle. Your niece is 7! 🙂
6, 7. Whatever.
This just made my whole day. Hilarious!
This is awesome! Teachers never understand true genius.
You win. 10/10
This is hilarious! Thank you for the giggles.
Just noticed. You got not one but, TWO photos posted up there!
Hilarious!
My bad. Three. I didn’t see the beach one.
I think the Iron Man and Godzilla ones blew your story. Or did they seriously fall for those too? XD
I was similarly tasked with Flat Stanley a few years back for an elementary school my company was partnered with.
I had my (then college-aged) daughter send me pictures of herself around campus holding a blank piece of paper, which I replaced with a Stanley scan.
Made me realize I need to get out more 😀
Hmm…never heard of that before. It would be just my luck if my niece sent me one of these things, a girl, not a boy.
I can see a few eyebrows being raised as I take the doll around the office, as well as one or two social spots.
Since I lived in DC I was a popular target for Flat Stanleys. For one, the girl’s father put together a blog for me to populate (http://flatalice.wordpress.com/). For the other I scanned and Photoshopped the character into different poses and facial expressions then put him in peril all over the city.