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39th out of 120 books
—
85 voters
The Wretched Stone
In a story recounted through the daily log of Captain Allan Hope, the sailors aboard the Rita Anne become mesmerized and transformed by a mysterious glowing rock, and only music and books can restore them to normal.
Hardcover, 32 pages
Published
October 28th 1991
by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
(first published January 1st 1991)
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The Wretched Stone, by Chris Van Allsburg, is in the form or Journal entries written by the captain of the boat the Rita Anne. In these accounts the captain tells a tale about finding an island and a magical stone that turns his crew into something they are not. The stone captures the attention of the crew and they are not willing to let it go when the captan insists on throwing it overboard. A few days after the crew had been locked in the forward hatch the captain comes to see what they are up...more
The Wretched Stone is an interesting, somewhat spooky picture book. It is narrated by a sailor via his personal diary. He and his crew are sailing in the ocean, and they come across an uncharted island. This island bears no fruit, no drinkable water, and no life whatsoever, but they do find a curious, glowing stone and bring it aboard the ship. The narrator finds that his once lively, fun crew who used to read, tell stories, and dance are now too absorbed in this strange stone to do anything but...more
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Chris Van Allsburg has given us a sailor's tale in The Wretched Stone. What seems to be an ordinary voyage turns out to be mysterious, dangerous, and almost mystical! Captain Randall Ethan Hope records these extraordinary and even bizarre experiences in the ship's log. What is this strange glowing stone that has been brought aboard the ship? Why has the crew seemed to "disappear " from the ship's decks? What does Captain Hope do to save his crew?
This is definitely a book that could be the starti...more
This is definitely a book that could be the starti...more
The Wretched Stone by Chris Van Allsburg sort of has the same theme going on when comparing it to “The Stranger”. His stories are definitely different than the average picture book. I do enjoy that Allsburg isn’t afraid to write such diverse stories when it comes to writing about fantasy and where our imagination as readers can take us. I thought it was interesting that he picked a rock to have such power to change the ship crew into monkeys. By looking at the pictures the monkeys looked scary a...more
This book depicts the importance of having the knowledge to read. In a short story the author, Chris Van Allsburg, tells of a ship’s crew and how the love for reading and music playing is taken away once they take hold of mysterious stone found on an uncharted island. The ship’s captain is the only on unaffected by the stone’s magic and no matter what he does to save his men as they start turning into apes nothing works even as danger approaches. The fact that they turn into apes once not knowin...more
Instead of reading another black and white story written and illustrated by Van Allsburg I decided to choose this one because of its vibrant colors. Although the illustrations are framed with a small, white border, the images seem to fill the entire space of that frame. The text is framed on top of the illustrations instead of having a separate page devoted to just the text. The text is written as log entries with dates and the color of the text is black on a white background. The text is from t...more
Wow. This is a very strange story, but strange in an altogether positive way. Though working with the full spectrum of color in his artwork instead of sticking to his traditional black-and-white palate, Chris Van Allsburg has retained the intangible element of darkness that always somehow permeates his drawings. The story of the sailing crew that finds the title stone is an eerie one, frightening at times, and Chris Van Allsburg makes it all very real by the dimensional quality of his illustrat...more
Feb 06, 2012
Hilary Yastrum
added it
I think this book was a good read! I liked that the Captain of the boat was the narrator of the story and he wrote the story in letters. Each page had a letter and a date corresponding to it. I also liked how the book focused on a mysterious rock that captivated the crew and made them turn into monkeys! When I first read this book I was confused by what the rock was representing, but by reading it again I understood that the rock could represent some type of media or substance that takes away fr...more
Sep 20, 2012
Staphany Ramirez
added it
I really love this book! The pictures are just amazing, the colors that are used are very lifelike. THe story itself is being told through excepts, which makes it a million times better! The story was about the daily events that happened to Captain Allan Hope and the sailors abroad the Rita Anne become transformed by a glowing rock. This book is a higher lever book compared to the other books that we have been reading in our class for children literature, this book contains long paragraphs and b...more
In a story recounted through the daily log of Captain Allan Hope, the sailors aboard the Rita Anne become mesmerized & transformed by a mysterious glowing rock, & only music & books can restore them to normal. "As always, Van Allsburg's paintings are magnificent. Cool, clear colors, boldly executed, & unusual perspective accentuate the story's mystery." -- Booklist (Goodread's Summary)
In The Wretched Stone, Van Allsburg creates a colorful and evocative story with a message. It's...more
In The Wretched Stone, Van Allsburg creates a colorful and evocative story with a message. It's...more
This Allsburg piece is not as interesting as some of the pieces he has done, but I am still baffled by what he (and/or other authors) are capable of writing for a picture book. For how short this book actually is, I thankfully felt as if it was much longer. I thoroughly enjoyed how each text of the book is from an onboard journal entry of the captain. This made me feel as if the story was coming to life and animated the illustrations in my mind. I loved how all the colors are so vivid and approp...more
Van Allsburrg’s “The Wretched Stone ” is an interesting story. I like how it is written and formatted like a Captain’s log it helped me get into the story of this strange sailing trip. The pictures are beautiful and full bleed spanning two whole pages. This is good since it enhances what is being said in the logs. I can’t help but think that this story is a kind of metaphor, comparing the glowing stone the sea voyagers watch to something else that glows that people today spend a lot of time watc...more
Summary:In a story recounted through the daily log of Captain Allan Hope, the sailors aboard the Rita Anne become mesmerized and transformed by a mysterious glowing rock, and only music and books can restore them to normal.
Genre: mystery, legend, fiction
Reading Level: The level of this book is clearly fluent because there are multiple paragraphs on each page with smaller font and little space between the letters. There are complex sentences and a variety of words. There are difficult spelling pa...more
Genre: mystery, legend, fiction
Reading Level: The level of this book is clearly fluent because there are multiple paragraphs on each page with smaller font and little space between the letters. There are complex sentences and a variety of words. There are difficult spelling pa...more
3.5 stars. I do love a good adventure-at-sea tale, and The Wretched Stone had that great salty feeling. I loved that the story was told in the form of a ship's log, and I loved that the language, while still being accessible to kids of today, set the story firmly in the heyday of full masted sailing ships. I liked the sense of vague menace and mystery, and as soon as the kids were made aware of what had befallen the crew they were dialed in to this story. The pictures were fantastic, too.
What di...more
What di...more
I love this book! The pictures are to die for and the story being told through excerpts from a diary give the whole thing an extra dose of mystery and an underlying sense of 'not-quite-right'ness.
What I really love about the story is how the transformed men of the ship are saved by being read to..and how the 'wretched stone' (which you never actually see, but always sense it's presence by it's 'light') reminds me of the hypnotizing quality of computers for kids. Oh so subtly done too. But - that...more
What I really love about the story is how the transformed men of the ship are saved by being read to..and how the 'wretched stone' (which you never actually see, but always sense it's presence by it's 'light') reminds me of the hypnotizing quality of computers for kids. Oh so subtly done too. But - that...more
Jan 31, 2012
Anna Groves
added it
Chris Van Allsburg is very diverse when it comes to his picture books, you can tell that he loves writing about fantasy and he is not afraid to step out of the box. In the "Wretched Stone", he picked a rock to be possessed, that used to be a human. But my favorite part was when some of the crew members started "liking" the banana. Through out the story you can definitely sense the emotion that comes from scene when the crew is in danger. but of course there is a happy and funny ending, with som...more
The Wretched Stone left me feeling kind of odd. The writing itself was quite direct, written as excerpts from a captain's journal while aboard the ship, Rita Anne. The merry crew came across an uncharted island where they found an object that would change them. Fortunately, the crew returns to its previous form with the aid of reading and music-making. The illustrations decked out most of the pages, and were a great help in understanding the story. However, the intended message, if any, was sadl...more
I thought this book was interesting, I really liked how it was written in a journal entry. The storyline itself was good as well. It was something I didn't anticipate when I picked up the book, but enjoyed it very much. The captain on the boat does a good job at staying calm willing the crew has turned into apes due to the stone that was brought aboard from an island they came across. They had some hard times due to the fact they were apes, the captain alone couldn't manage the boat by himself....more
The Wretched Stone is in a portrait layout. The illustrations are realistic and the colors set the mood of each page. The illustrations enhance the text and add to its meaning. The book takes place on a ship and the view is as if you are on the ship with the rest of the crew. There are borders around each page, but the illustrations continue throughout the spread. This is called breaking the frame, which brings excitement to the story. This can be so the reader isn't fully submersed in the illus...more
I liked how this book was written. Instead of being told from a narratives stand point it is being told from excerpts out of a ships captain's journal. The captain describes the crew and the ship along with the journey. During the journey the captain sees the crew has brought a mysterious glowing rock on the ship. And this rock eventually ends up turning the crew into apes on day during a bad storm. The captain has to play music to bring his crew back to normal until they are rescued. And then t...more
The book was a pleasant read. I enjoyed the fact that it was written from a journal perspective and I feel like it gave me more insight on the captains thoughts. It was entertaining to see the crew turn into monkeys. But I found it extremely interesting how the Captain Hope was able to bring them back through reading and playing violin. To me that was the moral of the story. Anyone can learn and be cultured, even if they are as barbaric as apes. I found funny how at the end of the story, the cre...more
This was an average book for children. It was written through the viewpoint of Captain Allan Hope's daily journal. Presenting it in this way was very unique and made the experience much more exciting and interesting for readers. The illustrations were very good. These very much helped the reader get a better picture of what the author was trying to portray. The story itself was somewhat entertaining but nothing more than just a simple story. There was no deeper message that inspired children to...more
The story had unexpected and interesting events; the rock magically turned his sailing crew into monkeys, what they really liked to do which was read and play musical instruments was what saved them, and in the end some seemed to have an unnatural appetite for the fruit there, which were bananas. It has full bleed pages but it has text in the middle of the pictures and the text is surrounded my a white border. The text in the book are from a journal. It looks like they just cut off pages from th...more
This book is a great conversation starter for adults and children. One could argue that it brings up the classic TV and video games versus reading debate. In this book a group of sailors on a long journey find a stone and become obsessed with it. The author, Van Allsburg, deliberately writes that the sailors who can read recover the quickest. The narrator who can read and play the violin is the only one who does not turn into an ape. He is also the only person who’s face the reader is able to se...more
This isn't my favorite Van Allsburg book. This is a color-illustrated book that has the artist out of his sculpture images. I do not think these work as well.
I am also not as fond of the text as other tales. Told as a captain's journal, we learn that the crew found a large stone that illuminates. The glow captures the crew and renders them shiftless and beastly. It isn't until after a storm that it glows dim and is covered. Eventually, the crew returns to normal.
I read this as conjuring up the i...more
I am also not as fond of the text as other tales. Told as a captain's journal, we learn that the crew found a large stone that illuminates. The glow captures the crew and renders them shiftless and beastly. It isn't until after a storm that it glows dim and is covered. Eventually, the crew returns to normal.
I read this as conjuring up the i...more
I did not particularly care for The Wretched Stone, however, I do think it gives a lesson that is important. At the beginning of the book, the men abroad the Rita Anne are joyful and content, many of them reading, telling stories, or being musical. This shows what joys being literate offers. After the rock comes aboard the ship, the men quit being literate and are transformed into beasts. The are illustrated as monkeys (something I found quite creepy). After much turmoil, the men return to norma...more
This book is a very enjoyable read, and I would recommend it heavily for students who are in 5th or 6th grade. This book really shines in its illustrations which are heavily detailed and unique. I enjoyed this story because it was surreal without being extreme; the transformation of the sailors to apes was stated in such of a matter of fact way, whereas many children's stories that I have read would have displayed the same scenario in a ridiculous fashion. Overall, this was, in my limited experi...more
The wretched stone is a story about a crew that stumbles across a mysterious stone on an island. The stone amazes the crew and they cannot take their eyes off it. Eventually,they turn into monkeys until the captain eventually reads to them and turns them back into men.
This story is about greed and desire. Once the men indulge in their desire to just stare at the rock all day, the turn into mere animals. I like the theme of the book, however, I am not a fan overall.
The journal style was interest...more
This story is about greed and desire. Once the men indulge in their desire to just stare at the rock all day, the turn into mere animals. I like the theme of the book, however, I am not a fan overall.
The journal style was interest...more
The illustrations are magical, full of the beauty and deliberate detail typical of Van Allsburg. Also typical of Van Allsburg is the quirky, magical story. I like the presentation of the story, written as a ship's log. It made for some good interest and suspense. As I read the story, I began making comparisons between the stone and television, and I think the story could be seen as a metaphor warning readers of the dangers of too much TV. It rots the brain, you know. But those who know how to re...more
Unless there is some strange cult out there that seeks to unlock life’s mysteries through meditations on “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick” (and really, there might be), nowhere on earth does Grand Rapids native Chris Van Allsburg receive more love than in the Southwest region of the mitten state. How do I know? Well, it’s where I live and work as a school librarian. The wonderful Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) recently wrapped up an exhibit of Mr. V.A.’s drawings and I stopped by for a look. Ama...more
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Chris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen Van Allsburg and Richard Van Allsburg. His sister Karen was born in 1947.
Chris’s paternal grandfather, Peter, owned and operated a creamery, a place where milk was turned into butter, cream, cottage cheese, and ice cream. It was named East End Creamery and after they bottled the milk (and made the ot...more
More about Chris Van Allsburg...
Chris’s paternal grandfather, Peter, owned and operated a creamery, a place where milk was turned into butter, cream, cottage cheese, and ice cream. It was named East End Creamery and after they bottled the milk (and made the ot...more
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