The Wretched Stone

written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg

Modern Fantasy

This book is yet another one of Chris Van Allsburg's creations that allows young readers to escape the realities of this world by creating a story filled with mysticism, thus readers are exposed to uncharted waters.  The book is a compilation of a fictional log from the Rita Anne, and is written by the fictional Captain, Randall Ethan Hope. The story is soothing as the reader flips the pages because the illustrations are soft and smooth, which is characteristic of many of Allsburg's books.  However, as the journal entries progress, the crew aboards an uncharted island where there is lush vegetation, yet no fruit, and no animals are present.  The crew finds a strange stone that is quite large and they board it onto the ship.  Strangely, the once lively crew over the next few days becomes quiet and begins to hunch over. The Captain believes the crew has caught a fever from the stone and decides to do away with it. However, the next day he awakens to the crew locked up with the stone, however, to his surprise they have turned into apes! The Rita Anne faces a horrible storm and the Captain is left to fend the ship for himself. The Rita Anne is destroyed but the crew and the Captain survive.  The Captain burns the stone and the crew is turned back to normal.  This story would be great to use in the classroom to show an example of how literature is also compiled through a series of journal entries.  I would introduce this book by having students read the story and then integrate writing by having students write a log like the one in the book.  This could be done by having students write  creative writing topics in which they are to create a fictional story or they could write historical fiction by using an historical event to center around their writing journals.