Flat Is The New Thick: Flat Stanley Visits the Quirk HQ

Recently the Quirk compound was visited by beloved children's book character Flat Stanley.

As many of you will recall, young Stanley was rendered two-dimensional when a huge bulletin board fell on top of him. He didn't let flatness keep him down, though; in fact, he took advantage of the situation by folding himself into envelopes and mailing himself all around the world. Since then, kids in over 6.000 schools–including my nephew Sam–have participated in the Flat Stanley Project by creating their own Flat Stanleys and mailing them all over the place.

The Stanleys are mailed back with photos and information about where they've been. So here are some of the pictures from Stanley's visit to Quirk. (Spoiler alert–Sam got an A.)

Flat Stanley watched the front desk.

He did some light photocopying for us.

Later he went online and nominated Ben Winters' novel The Last Policeman for an Edgar Award.

Flat Stanley came to one of our cover meetings. His presence really livened things up.

This was Flat Stanley's idea for a book cover. Our art director took one look at it and threatened to quit.

WATCH OUT, FLAT STANLEY! YOU'RE CAUGHT IN THE FAX MACHINE!

Also, WE STILL HAVE A FAX MACHINE??!!

I showed Flat Stanley the Book Room, which is what we call the room in the basement where we store books.

Watch out for those books, Flat Stanley…

Oh no, Flat Stanley!

He's okay.

We also visited some of the historic sites that are just minutes away from the Quirk offices.  Like Independence Hall…

And the Liberty Bell. Wait a minute…was that crack there already? Oh, Flat Stanley!

We visited the grave of Benjamin Franklin.

Cheese it, Flat Stanley! It's Ben Franklin's ghost! Let's get out of here!