The Wretched Stone

Even my eight-year-old grandchild got the message of this wonderful allegory. The Wretched Stone is an important story with a message-- a great reminder lesson for children and adults alike, about the dangers of watching too much television. It's so easy to slide into the passive oblivion in front of the tube. We need to tear ourselves and our children away from the "glowing orb." The sailors on the ship became captive to a glowing stone that said nothing. Anything like that around your house?

This is one of my favorite Chris Van Allsburg books. Chris Van Allsburg, author to gems like The Polar Express, The Stranger, Just a Dream, and The Wreck of the Zephyr, tells another captivating story with a message. This one serves as a great reminder and launching point for discussion, for children and adults alike, about the dangers of too much television. It's estimated that the average child watches about 4 hours of TV per day. That calculates out to 28 hours per week or 120 hours per month. Imagine what any one of us could accomplish in that amount of time! The sad truth is that for so many of us parents, the TV becomes a cheap and easy babysitter for our kids. The Wretched Stone is a great story with wonderful illustrations and a very important message.

I love Chris Van Allsburg books, I want to own all of them! this book was especially good to teach my student how to infer, they had fun collecting the clues the authro gives and then inferring what the wretched stone was. It was a good reading lesson, they loved it and I do too.

If you have trouble getting your kids to turn off the tv...here is a wonderful adventure book to show the kids how too much television viewing can turn you into an "ape"! Filled with metaphors for older children (8 and up) to figure out: Could the strange island where they found the wretched stone once have been inhabited with intelligent life? Perhaps all that is left (after pollution, technology) is unedible vegetation, undrinkable water, stinky odors--but the "stone" remains,("rough textured, gray with portion that is flat and smooth as glass,"), sound like a tv? How about the lightning that knocks out the "power" of the stone/tv? And I love the part where..."It seems that those who knew how to READ recovered more quickly." Another recommended "anti-tv" book for kids: "Fred's TV" by, Clive Dobson.(may be out of print, but can still get in online!)

The Wretched Stone an intriguing tale that, like most of Van Allsburg's books, begins in a deceivingly normal way. The voyage of the Rita May turns strange when a large glowing rock is brought on board. As the crew becomes mesmerized by its light, they are transformed into ape-like beings, loosing the qualities that make them human. Until a storm hits , there appears no way the ship will survive. The story serves as a reminder that as we slip deeper into the electronic age, we may be loosing the very things that give us our humanity. It is a timely piece.