Review Detail

Flat Stanley and his father are riding a cable car in San Francisco when Stanley sees a girl racing down a hill in a wheelchair. Feeling that she is in danger, he tries to save her, and his father grabs on as well, which results in the two of them ending up in a van and driven to a redwood forest. There, they find out that Lily has purposefully sought Stanley out because she thinks that he will understand being different and having people apply preconceived notions to what he must be like. Lily wants to try an escape from Alcatraz island to prove that someone in a wheelchair could perform this impossible trick, and she wants Stanley to help her. Her family is involved in this, as is an entire corporation in Silicon Valley, and Stanley is soon kitted out in a fabulous flying suit. The two get locked into the prison when it closes and try to make their escape.

Flat Stanley is a perennial favorite; the original book came out in 1964, and even twenty years ago when my children were in school, there was a Flat Stanley project where we mailed copies of Stanley to friends in other parts of the world and had them send back pictures of Stanley's adventures. If this book is any indication, this new series of adventures finds Stanley kicking it up a notch and getting involved in all sorts of daredevil escapades. At the end of the book, there are some fun facts about San Francisco.