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The Lambchop family – father George, mother Harriet, and sons Stanley and Arthur – are off to see Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Stanley, of course, is none other than Flat Stanley, the famous boy flattened by a large bulletin board that fell on him one night.
The entire family is excited about their vacation to the famous landmark. After packing their camping gear and squeezing themselves into their car (Mom vetoes letting Flat Stanley ride tied up to the roof of the car), they are finally off.
When they finally get to Mount Rushmore, the Lambchops are in for a series of amazing adventures and mishaps involving falling rocks, cave-ins, and daring rescues. Arthur, Flat Stanley, and their new cowgirl friend, Calamity Jasper, have to learn to work together and use their collective strength, smarts and talents to get themselves out of various scrapes.
Sara Pennypacker has revived the Flat Stanley characters originally created by Jeff Brown in 1964 and placed them in a modern context. The new travel-themed stories generally stay true to the sly, offbeat humor of Brown’s creation.
The book includes black-and-white drawings of Flat Stanley and the family at Mount Rushmore. Useful appendices contain historical and geographical facts about the Black Hills, making this book a solid addition to a beginning reader’s library.
The book might be most interesting to children who have participated in the Flat Stanley Project, started by a schoolteacher in the 1990s to promote letter-writing among school kids. A child who receives a Flat Stanley paper doll takes Stanley around with him for a few days and documents their “adventures” for the sender. Reading The Mount Rushmore Calamity is a good way for a child who has participated in the Flat Stanley Project to learn more about Flat Stanley while gaining some geographical and historical knowledge at the same time.
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Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures #1: The Mount Rushmore Calamity