Round Stan - a synopsis

At Christmas, Stan was helping Mum and Dad to blow up balloons.

He took a really deep breath and blew as hard as he could into the balloon. He blew so hard that he emptied his lungs into the balloon.

Just as he ran out of breath, the balloon stuck to his lips and began to deflate. Poor Stan had no breath left to stop the deflating balloon. The air rushed back out of the balloon and into his lungs.

Stan grew big and round.

"Hurrah!" shouted Mum and Dad. "Our Stanley is no longer flat!" But their excitement came too soon.

Stan continued to get bigger and rounder as the balloon emptied all its air into him. He began to float off the floor and across the room.

"Help!" Stan began to cry. But as he began to shout, so the air began to rush out of him again, and he whizzed around the room, just like a balloon does when you have blown it up and let it go. And just like a blown up balloon that has lost all its air, Stan wasn't flat any more, but he wasn't spherical either. He was sort of sausage shaped. He was Round Stan.