The Wretched Stone

The Wretched Stone is a children's picture book written and illustrated by the American author Chris Van Allsburg. It serves as an allegory for the dangers of watching television.

Plot summary
This book is told in a 'journal' format, as it takes place over the course of May 8 to July 12 of an unspecified year.

Told from the perspective of Captain Randall Ethan Hope, the crew of the Rita Anne left for a voyage, enjoying each other's company. About a month later, they find a strange, glowing, cubic stone on a smelly, exotic island without animals. After taking the strange object aboard their ship, the crew becomes obsessed with the stone, abandoning many of their former interests and leaving the captain wondering how to shake the crew out of their stupor. Gradually, the glowing stone turns the entire crew, except the captain, into grinning apes! Afterwards, the "Rita Anne' nearly sinks due to a storm. When the stone stops glowing, the captain reverts the crew back to normal by playing violin and reading to them. On June 30th, they are rescued by another ship that drops them off at a harbor in "Santa Pengal". The captain decided to burn the ship and send it to the bottom of the ocean, taking the stone with it. In Santa Pangol, each crew member finds a ship to return home, though some of them still have some aftereffects of the stone due to liking bananas a lot.