Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures #10 Read online

Stanley and the other boys linked arms. The sun was high and sharp. A buzzard circled overhead.

  Mrs. Lambchop took a slow step toward them. “I gave you three rules!” she called in a cold, stony voice.

  The gang of boys stepped forward.

  “And one of them was to show up on time,” she continued and took another step forward.

  “It was my fault!” Stanley, Arthur, Carlos, and Eduardo all said.

  “I don’t care whose fault it was,” Mrs. Lambchop said. “A rule is a rule! Have you been using proper grammar?”

  The boys hesitated. A lone tumbleweed rolled through.

  “Mostly,” answered Arthur.

  Mrs. Lambchop squinted and shook her head slowly.

  Then a truck pulled into the parking lot and screeched to a halt.

  “That’s the truck that was chasing us!” said Carlos.

  The truck’s doors swung open. In the glaring sun, Stanley could just make out the giant silhouette of a towering man in a cowboy hat. His boots ground the dusty asphalt.

  Uh-oh, thought Stanley.

  “We meet at last!” the giant cowboy said.

  “They’re mine!” called Mrs. Lambchop, moving closer to the boys.

  Suddenly Stanley heard another voice as someone stepped from the passenger side of the truck. “Gol-durned fools!”

  It was a girl. She tugged her leather vest and straightened her cowboy hat. She glared at Stanley and his friends.

  Stanley’s mouth fell open. “Calamity Jasper! What are you doing here?”

  “CHASING YOU!” she bellowed, charging toward them. “Ever since you sent me a postcard saying you’d be in Texas, I said, ‘I just have to go visit my friends Stanley and Arthur.’ I had my uncle Jeb drive me down here straight away!”

  The giant cowboy tipped his hat.

  “You know her?” Eduardo asked Stanley. “She was the one outside my dorm!”

  Stanley slapped his forehead. “Calamity, I’m really sorry,” he said, breaking away from his friends. “We thought you were one of my fans.”

  “One of your what?” cried Calamity Jasper. “Stanley Lambchop, when did your flat head get so big?”

  “Probably around the same time he and his brother forgot to use proper English!” Mrs. Lambchop said.

  “Well,” Calamity said, “I’d wrangle them both to the ground myself, Mrs. Lambchop—except I’m so happy to see them!”

  With that, Calamity pulled Arthur and Stanley into a hug. Mrs. Lambchop was right behind her. She hugged them too.

  Then Mrs. Lambchop said, “I’m not happy you were late, but Stanley, wait until you see what the Texas librarians did! They made you into an activity! Students are sending cutouts of you through the mail!”

  Just like that, the big showdown that Stanley had feared was over. And Stanley and his friends were still standing.

  After they all toured the Alamo together, Uncle Jeb and Mrs. Lambchop went to the gift shop, while the five friends decided to play a game of Capture the Flag. Carlos and Calamity were on one team, and Eduardo and Arthur were on the other. The goal of the game was to capture Stanley, who was the flag, before the other team did. Stanley hung on to a flagpole, under a Texas state flag, just outside a window overlooking the Alamo courtyard.

  It was Calamity who got to him first. She ducked under Eduardo’s arm, grabbed Stanley, and jumped from the window.

  She and Stanley sailed to the ground, with Stanley acting as a parachute. Arthur tackled them at once. Stanley flew up in the air, curled into a ball, uncurled, and fluttered just out of their reach. His friends snatched at him madly, and soon all four of them were piled on top of him in the center of the courtyard.

  They laughed and giggled, heaping themselves onto Stanley.

  Nothing keeps me down to earth, thought Stanley, like my friends!

  8

  Flat Pal

  A few weeks later Arthur and Stanley stood in a circle of friends in the schoolyard. Eduardo’s song had become a big hit at school since they’d returned home and taught it to everyone. Now Arthur was pumping his hands through the air in the center of the circle and rapping:

  “Show your gratitude!

  Get the flattitude!

  Rock like the kid

  who rolls like a mat!”

  Their friends made beats with their mouths and took turns singing verses. At the end of the song, Arthur pointed to Stanley, and Stanley leaped in the air, landed on his back, did some waves with his body on the ground, and flipped to his feet, his arms crossed. Everyone cheered.

  It’s not so bad having fans, thought Stanley.

  Arthur and Stanley rapped all the way home, and people occasionally leaned out of their car windows to sing along with them. It was a blustery day, but Stanley kind of liked the way the wind brushed up against his feet.

  Arriving home, the boys burst through their bedroom door.

  Stanley was surprised to find two letters on his bed. One was from Eduardo, telling Stanley what he’d recently learned about the French Revolution. The other was from Calamity Jasper. Stanley opened the envelope and was surprised to see a small, flat figure fall out. But instead of being shaped like him, it wore cowboy boots, a worn brown vest, and a cowboy hat over its brown pigtails. Stanley flipped it over. On the back it read “Next time, I’m travelin’ with you, pardner!”

  Stanley grinned and tacked Flat Jasper to his bulletin board, alongside all the other souvenirs from his adventures.

  What You Need to Know to Go on Your Own Adventure in the Lone Star State

  The city of Austin, Texas, is thought to be the live music capital of the world.

  The capitol building in Austin opened on May 16, 1888. The building’s dome is seven feet higher than the Capitol in Washington, DC.

  “Álamo” is Spanish for cottonwood, which is a tree that grows in Texas.

  The official state mammal of Texas is the armadillo.

  There were only around 200 Texan soldiers who defended the Alamo against General Antonio López de Santa Anna’s army of 1,800 Mexican troops!

  The Battle of the Alamo was part of the larger Texas War of Independence. Texas became free after it won the war in April 1836.

  “Remember the Alamo!” was the battle cry that Texans used after their defeat to recruit more volunteer soldiers for the next battle.

  Even though Texas gained its independence in 1836, it didn’t actually become part of the United States of America until 1845.

  David “Davy” Crockett was a famous frontiersman and congressman from Tennessee. He fought in the Battle of the Alamo.

  Texans turned the Alamo into a fortified fortress, complete with 21 cannons!

  Excerpt from Flat Stanley’s Worldwide Adventures #11

  There’s No Place on Earth

  That a Flat Kid Can’t Go!

  Don’t Miss:

  Turn the Page to Read a Sample!

  1

  La Mission Impossible

  Stanley Lambchop stood before the map that his teacher, Ms. Merrick, had yanked down at the front of the classroom. She nodded at him to begin.

  “I’ve traveled all over the world,” Stanley told his class. “I’ve been to Canada, Mexico, Egypt, Japan, Kenya, and China.” He pointed to each country as he spoke.

  His classmate Molly raised her hand. “Do you always travel by mail?” she asked.

  Ever since the bulletin board over Stanley’s bed had fallen and flattened him, he had been easy to fold and mail in an envelope.

  “Not always. Sometimes I fly,” Stanley replied. He thought for a moment. “On a plane, I mean. Or I can float thousands of miles if the wind is right.”

  Stanley’s friend Carlos raised his hand next. “So you’ve never been to Europe?”

  Stanley turned and found Europe on the map. He scanned the countries that made up the continent: England . . . Spain . . . France . . . Germany . . . Italy . . . “Actually, no, I haven’t been to any of the European countries. . . . But I have been to Australia
.” He reached over, past Europe and Asia, and proudly tapped the country in the bottom right corner.

  The map shuddered and snapped up like a window shade. All at once it was dark, and Stanley’s body felt very tightly wound.

  He’d been rolled up with the map!

  “Hilph!” Stanley cried. He could hear his classmates laughing.

  Suddenly there was a muffled announcement over the loudspeaker. A moment later Stanley felt himself being unwound.

  About the Authors and Illustrator

  JEFF BROWN created the beloved character of Flat Stanley as a bedtime story for his sons. He has written other outrageous books about the Lambchop family, including Flat Stanley, Stanley and the Magic Lamp, Invisible Stanley, Stanley’s Christmas Adventure, Stanley in Space, and Stanley, Flat Again! You can learn more about Jeff Brown and Flat Stanley at www.flatstanleybooks.com.

  JOSH GREENHUT once mailed Flat Stanley, in costume, to a Halloween party 300 miles away. He is now married to the woman who hosted the party, and they live in Toronto with their two children.

  MACKY PAMINTUAN is an accomplished illustrator. He lives in the Philippines with his wife, Aymone; their baby girl, Alison; and their pet Westie, Winter.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors and artist.

  Back Ad

  Flat Stanley Books

  CATCH ALL OF FLAT STANLEY’S WORLDWIDE ADVENTURES:

  The Mount Rushmore Calamity

  The Great Egyptian Grave Robbery

  The Japanese Ninja Surprise

  The Intrepid Canadian Expedition

  The Amazing Mexican Secret

  The African Safari Discovery

  The Flying Chinese Wonders

  The Australian Boomerang Bonanza

  The US Capital Commotion

  Showdown at the Alamo

  AND DON’T MISS ANY OF THESE OUTRAGEOUS STORIES:

  Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure!

  Stanley and the Magic Lamp

  Invisible Stanley

  Stanley’s Christmas Adventure

  Stanley in Space

  Stanley, Flat Again!

  Credits

  Cover art by Macky Pamintuan

  Cover design by Alison Klapthor

  Copyright

  FLAT STANLEY’S WORLDWIDE ADVENTURES #10: SHOWDOWN AT THE ALAMO

  Text copyright © 2014 by the Trust u/w/o Richard C. Brown a/k/a Jeff Brown f/b/o Duncan Brown.

  Illustrations by Macky Pamintuan, copyright © 2014 by HarperCollins Publishers.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  www.harpercollinschildrens.com

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Greenhut, Josh.

  Showdown at the Alamo / created by Jeff Brown ; written by Josh Greenhut; pictures by Macky Pamintuan. — First edition.

  pages cm. — (Flat Stanley’s worldwide adventures ; #10]

  Summary: Autograph-seekers interfere with Stanley Lambchop’s hopes for a fun vacation with friends while sightseeing in Texas.

  ISBN 978-0-06-218988-2 (trade bdg.) — ISBN 978-0-06-218987-5 (pbk.)

  EPub Edition October 2013 ISBN 9780062189899

  [1. Vacations—Fiction. 2. Celebrities—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction. 4. Alamo (San Antonio, Tex.)—Fiction. 5. Texas—Fiction.] I. Pamintuan, Macky, illustrator. II. Brown, Jeff, 1926–2003. III. Title.

  PZ7.G84568Sho 2014 2013021853

  [Fic]—dc23 CIP

  AC

  * * *

  13 14 15 16 17 CG/RRDC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  FIRST EDITION

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