Introducing Flat Stanley

Katie, my niece who lives in Texas, wrote me a lovely letter asking me to help her with her school project.

“Our class has finished reading the book Flat Stanley. It is about a little boy who becomes flat in the middle of the night when his bulletin board falls on him. While he is flat, he has many adventures.
Our class is working on our own Flat Stanley project. I am sending Stanley to you to go on a new adventure. If you don’t mind, would you please write down any adventures that Stanley has with you while visiting”.

Unfortunately, Stanley arrived too late to go to London with me. So, for a while I was at a loss with what adventures, if any, I could take him on. For a whole week, Stanley lay on our coffee table folded up in Katie’s letter. Feeling terribly guilty that I hadn’t done anything with him, I stuffed him in my purse last weekend before heading out to meet a friend at Steel City Coffee House in Phoenixville, PA.

The plan was to hang out with her and knit while her husband performed in the free chamber music series. However, before her husband took the stage with the rest of the quintet, a local Pottstown High School student played several traditional Scottish instruments. He started with my favorite: the Scottish Highland pipes (bagpipes).

Halfway through the young man’s performance, it occurred to me that this would be a great ‘adventure’ for Stanley.

Later in the week, when Dan and I headed to center city Philadelphia to catch an opera, Stanley went with us.

Mike, one of our friends who went to London with us, plays the bassoon. Through him, we often learn of the latest operas, ballets and other performances in the Philadelphia region. While in London, he told us of the latest opera he would be performing in, L’Enfant. It is an opera about a little boy who is very naughty, refusing to do his homework and frequently destroying the items in his house. When his mother leaves one day, the furniture, books and wildlife take their revenge on him. It sounded like such a fun and interesting concept for an opera that we were excited to see it.

L’Enfant was performed by the Opera Company of Philadelphia inside of the Academy.

On Saturday, we also took Stanley with us to see the St. Pius High School drama club perform the Into the Woods musical. They were great! Dan and I really enjoyed the entire production. We were actually quite impressed by some of the young singers/actors. Unfortunately, the pictures didn’t come out because it was too dark.

Can you think of any other adventures I can take Flat Stanley on before I have to send him back next week?