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| Flat Kenny By Beth McKenzie
Submitted to MyShelf.Com In mid-February I received a letter from my 5-year-old nephew, Kenny. It was pre-printed and the underlined words were handwritten, all by himself!
Of course my sister had called me in advance and asked if I would be willing to participate. She was aware that my husband and I have both edited a newsletter for a club we belong to and have completed projects similar in scope the previous year. She gave me some insights in to her 5 year-old's mind, such as he likes tractors, especially John Deere Tractors like Mr. Wendell drives in the field next door to their house. He likes animals, especially cats like his friend Stripey and bats like Stellaluna. Flat Stanley may get to go alot of places, but where did he come from and why is he still around? He originally appeared in 1964, in a book by the same name, authored by Jeff Brown and illustrated by Tommy Ungerer. Mr. Brown relates the origin or the story idea on the Flat Stanley Project website: http://flatstanley.enoreo.on.ca/jeff_brown.html Flat Kenny has been several places with us: to the stable to see the horses, upstairs to see the bats, to the big cities of Knoxville, TN, and and Atlanta, GA. He has helped feed the guineas and cats, seen a nuclear power plant, the Sun Sphere and a nearby Big-Kids school. We are diligently taking pictures and preparing a scrapbook to send back to him and his kindergarten class. The beauty of this project is the excitement and creativity that comes in the envelope; not just for Kenny, but for all of us. When I call my sister who is 800 miles away I have something to say, "Guess where Flat Kenny went today!", then she gives me a few more ideas. I spent an hour last week trying to get five cats to groom Flat Kenny all at the same time, catnip didn't work so I had to resort to gravy. Some of my attempts at animal interaction have been closer to the Mr. Bill show than something that should go to a children's class. Feeding the horses was particularly destructive; "Big teeth. Big, scary teeth". I'm glad I had the foresight to make a few boy-copies before we started. I saw the effect on human Kenny's imagination last week when my sister called, "Kenny is worried that because you are getting snow that Flat Kenny will be cold. He wants to send Flat Kenny a blanket." I laughed. "Tell him that I have one he can use." "He also thinks that Flat Kenny is missing his cat." "Flat Kenny has a cat?" "Flat Stripey. She's a good cat. She sleeps a lot." A few days later I got the envelope. There was a picture of the furry Stripey sleeping on Kenny's bed, and a similar looking flat tabby and paper blanket in the envelope . That evening I made Flat Kenny a flat bed and flat pillows and let the family reunite in peaceful warm slumber, duly documented in celluloid for the scrapbook. Flat Stripey rides back and forth to work with me everyday on the dashboard of my truck. My sister was right. She does sleep a lot. If you have not read this book I would suggest that you do. I also suggest that if you have early-grade children that you bring it to the attention of their teachers. They may not have time to fit it into their curriculum this year, but may be able to consider it for future classes. If you do not have children of your own you can always reverse the project and flatten yourself to visit your nieces and nephews. It would be interesting to find out what they came up with for you to see and do. Flat Aunt Beth is going to visit Kenny’s kindergarten class next month when she delivers the scrapbook. Flat Stanley at Amazon.com Flat Stanley 40th Anniversary Edition Flat
Stanley
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