Customer Reviews

The Wretched Stone

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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?

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!)

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.

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.

Vivid artwork in an array of dramatic colors adds to the mystery and eerieness of this book. I take it that the "wretched stone" is a metaphor for television and its hypnotic effect. I am taking a course on children's literature and have been sampling picture books, and so far Van Allsburg wins the palm. The darkness of this tale may be disconcerting to some of the young set, but the last page with its bright red, white and yellow colors and its kicker wit dispels the gloom and sends us all to bed happier and the wiser.

Have you heard about the book The Wretched Stone? The author, Chris Van Allsburg, made a beautiful book. This book I will never forget. I am glad I read this book. I hope you will enjoy this book like I did.

I thought that the colors were pale in the pictures. But, the theme is good. The theme is to not watch too much TV. The art work is like real people. I can tell that the author's words are very stiff. The story takes place mostly at sea in the boat.

In The Wretched Stone it said, "Some play musical instruments and there are a few good strong storytellers among them." Also, a good quote they said is, "I am playing the violin and reading to the crew." I like the ending a lot. Also it is very funny that the crew turns into monkeys. The author's style is to make the kids see it in there minds.

The crew and the captain are going through bad times. These entire things have a solution. The captain is the person who solves them. I enjoyed this book.

I feel that the book is meant for higher grade levels. Mostly for forth and fifth graders. The pictures are not cartoons, they are real people. This book is very extraordinary. This book is a 4 star book. I hope this book review will make you read it too.

The Wretched stone
Nick f
The Wretched Stone is a wonderful children's book for any first time readers of any age. This book is filled with mystery and suspense. A group of sailors go sailing on a ship when they see an island they stop for fresh water and for food. When they are on the island they find a smooth polished rock and they thought it was cool, so they where going to bring it with them to where they were going. One night the captain goes down into the hold and when he reaches the hold he has a big surprise awaiting him. This is a good book for any adventurous reader and The Wretched Stone is perfect for any one of any age. The book has many great ideas and wonderful voice and has awesome sentence fluency these are 2 reasons why I chose this book as my favorite.

The Wrethched Stone is a great book. I loved it! It is a little confusing. I would have liked more detail. The pictures were great! I think kids older then the age of 9 would understand it more then littler kids. Little kids would love the pictures, though.

The Wretched Stone is a book that works well with chlidred k-3. This book can be used for predicting, inferring, and ejoyment. The text has a few nautical vocabulary words, but nothing that cannot be expalined to the childrne can get the full meaning of the text. Children enjoy guessing what will happen to the crew of the ship. Will they stay monkeys? or make it back to land safely? A recommend this book for read alouds or mini lessons in the classroom.

Once or twice a year my children agitate for a television in our house. Usually it's because they've been watching TV at grandma's, or their friends have been raving about some reality program they watched the night before. When they ask for the umpteenth time why we don't watch television, I whip out The Wretched Stone.

The story, which follows the denigration to a ship's crew from a musical, literary bunch to a collection of dumbstruck apes (literally) after the introduction of mesmerizing rock on board, makes it easy enough for even little kids to make the connection between the glowing stone and television. And how does their captain bring his crew back? Through reading and music, of course.