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Our seven-year-old niece, who was assigned a project by her Brownie Troop, sent us this paper doll, dubbed, Flat Jessica, by mail. The idea of the project was based upon the original idea from another traveling-by-mail paper doll named "Flat Stanley." You can read the full story below about the origins and reasons for this adventure project.

We were happy to be hosts to "Flat Jessica" and immediately took her on a nature excursion to Lake Katherine Nature Center and Botanic Gardens, in Palos Heights, Illinois for some adventures. She met *three new friends, who were already friends with "Flat Stanley," learned about plants, insects, and an array of other animals, as well as getting to play in a special area of the gardens that were created just for children! She had an amazing time!

"Flat Stanley is an American children's book series written by author Jeff Brown (January 1, 1926 – December 3, 2003). The idea for the book began as a bedtime story for Brown’s sons, which Brown turned into the first Flat Stanley book. The first book featured illustrations by Tomi Ungerer and was published in 1964. Brown did not continue the series until more than two decades later, when he published five more books: Stanley and the Magic Lamp, Stanley in Space, Stanley’s Christmas Adventure, Invisible Stanley, and Stanley, Flat Again!

"By 2003, the Flat Stanley series had sold almost a million copies in the United States, and the stories had been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Hebrew.

"The book recounts the adventures of Stanley Lambchop after he is squashed flat by a bulletin board while sleeping. He survives and decides to make the best of being flat. Soon, he discovers that he is able to enter locked rooms by sliding under the door. Over the course of the story, he also rolls up to go out to a park, and he is used as a kite by his brother.
"Another special advantage of being flat is that Flat Stanley can visit his friends in California by mailing himself in an envelope. Stanley even helps catch art museum thieves by disguising himself as a painting on the wall. Eventually, Stanley becomes tired of his flatness, and his brother restores his proper shape with a bicycle pump.

"The Flat Stanley Project began in 1995 under the direction of Dale Hubert, a third-grade schoolteacher in London, Ontario, Canada. The project is meant to facilitate letter-writing between schoolchildren as they document where Flat Stanley has accompanied them around the world. The goal of the project is to increase reading and writing skills, as well as teaching children about people and cultures from different places. Dale Hubert received the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2001 for his work in creating the Flat Stanley Project.

"The Flat Stanley Project provides an opportunity for students to make connections with students from other member schools who have signed up for the project. Students begin by reading the book and becoming familiar with Flat Stanley's story. Then, they create paper "Flat Stanleys" (representative drawings of the Stanley Lambchop character) and keep a journal for a few days, documenting the places and activities in which Flat Stanley is involved. Each student's Flat Stanley and its respective journal are then mailed to students at other schools. The students at those schools are asked to treat the Flat Stanley as a visiting guest and add to the respective journal, then return them both after a short period of time.
The project has many similarities to the traveling gnome prank, except that the Flat Stanley Project focuses more on literacy.

"As a part of the project, students may plot Flat Stanley's travels on maps and share the contents of their journals. Additionally, Flat Stanleys often return with a photo or postcard from its visit. Despite the project's traditional reliance on letters, some teachers prefer to use e-mail due to its quicker travel time.
In 2008, more than 6,000 classes from 47 countries took part in the Flat Stanley Project." (Wikipedia)

*Flat Jessica" said that she loved the purple Clematis flowers the best!

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