The Eleventh Hour

This is a fantastic book. It is beautiful and has a little mystery to read. Perfect for a family to read together!

This Children's book is about the Mystery of the Disappearing Birthday Feast. All the animals come to Elephant's party, but one of them sneaks in early and eats all the treats. The reader is invited to solve the mystery using clues presented on each page. Each page is a very detailed painting of

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the action in the story with hidden clues that are integral to solving the mystery.

This book is fun for middle-school children. The clues are well-hidden and include codes, anagrams, musical notes, as well as other clues cleverly hidden in the illustrations. (If anyone has too much trouble, there are hints at the back of the book.) Graeme Base is a wonderful illustrator, putting great detail in every picture.

This book would be fun to work on together as a group project. Each group could work on one page and then gather together to solve the mystery as a class. It could also be used to introduce a lesson on codes or puzzles. The story is also told in rhyme, which would make it a good read-aloud story for beginning readers.

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Have the students talk about how they got ready for one of their birthday parties. Ask them to right about what they did at their party or what they would want to do for the next one.

I just received this in the mail, and while its not up to Animalia, it has the same incredibly detailed, whimsical pictures that are stories within stories. The story is a bit weak and didn't hold me like Animalia did. Also, I get frustrated with puzzles of this sort. There are so many clues that

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its a bit overwhelming. I suspect that puzzle lovers will love this book. :)

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I loved the illustrations, as they are intricate, depict all that is in the complicated yet short text on each page, and can lead to a great amount of discussion. Kids are meant to read this and look at the pictures to verify what they read and then figure out a mystery at the end, which will

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require rereading. I was thinking that a lesson could be derived somehow from almost every page because so much is happening, the language is difficult, and there are many implications rather than direct language.

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This book is about a elephant that is turning 11 years old and throws a birthday party. The elephant and the guests play games until the 11th hour which is when they can eat. All the food has been eaten when they get in to eat. So you have to find out how ate the food.

Horace the elephant is turning 11 years old and wants to celebrate with a magnificent party. He invites 10 of his friends over for games and a homemade feast. But when it’s time to devour the special meal he’s created, a theft is discovered! The food has all been consumed! Can you find out who

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ruined the feast?

Each page of this beautifully illustrated book contains clues to help the ambitious reader discover the culprit. The coded and hidden messages could literally entertained children for hours. However, for those who want a shortcut, a sealed portion at the back of the book reveals the thief and explains all the clues. I loved, loved, loved this book as a child; I couldn’t get enough of it, even after I had solved the mystery many times over.

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Base, Graeme. The Eleventh Hour. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1993. Print.

Appropriate for the ages of about 8 and above, this beautifully illustrated picture book is skilfully written, in verse form. It begins with an elephant named Horace, who decides to celebrate his eleventh birthday, by throwing

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an extravagant fancy dress party. He invites eleven friends (an assortment of animals). Finally when the eleventh hour arrives, it's time for the animals to enjoy their feast, (prepared by Horace). However much to their dismay they discover that all of the food has disappeared. Each animal firmly denies any guilt. Graeme Base leaves it to the reader to solve the mystery of guessing who the thief is, with clever use of clues hidden within each detailed illustration, which I feel really highlights the original and ingenious plot.

Clearly the fantasy element of “The Eleventh Hour”, is the fact that animals are acting like humans, such as the whole idea of an elephant wearing clothes and living in a house. I think the consistency of the intricate illustrations and the verse form of the language present in “The Eleventh Hour”, makes the highly imaginative storyline believable. I also believe that the story is logical and consistent within the framework established by Base. Thus it has a clear problem and a possible solution presented, as well as this the fact that all of the animals in the story are acting as if they are humans suits Base's fantasy world perfectly.

I think the universal truth that the fantasy conveys in “The Eleventh Hour”, is that stealing is wrong, and in most situations, the truth will be revealed.

In my opinion “The Eleventh Hour” proves to be a worthy contender to Base's award winning picture book, “Animalia”. Thus like “The Eleventh Hour”, “Animalia” has extremely vivid and detailed illustrations, once again picturing animals with human qualities. However in comparison to the more complex storyline of “The Eleventh Hour”, “Animalia” is an alphabet book.

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Horace is turning eleven and wants to make sure that it is celebrated just right! He invites his friends over and they play many games. When it is time to eat they discover all of the food is gone. Horace has a solution and brings out more food, but who stole all the other food?

A young elephant has a birthday party and invites all of his animal friends to celebrate, but there's a problem; the birthday feast is missing! Which one of the party guests has stolen it? A beautifully illustrated book full of codes, puzzles, and mystery. A fun read for middle schoolers and up.

I loved this book as a child. After re-reading it as an adult, I love it even more. The Eleventh Hour is beautiful, complex, challenging, and annoying in all the best ways. Base is a genius and I cannot praise this book highly enough.

This is a puzzle in a picture - very fun to do and challenging even for adults. Amazing pictures.

Horace the elephant invites his animal friends to his eleventh birthday party. Though a good time is had by all, someone steals the birthday feast and it is up to the reader to put together the clues and determine the culprit. Beautifully illustrated and with comic rhyming prose, Base puts together

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a mystery for young readers that I am still trying to solve. I thought I had it on my first read through, but my inability to crack the code proved I still have some sleuthing to do!

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fun mystery with excellent puzzles to solve

A picture book that has the reader searching for clues to find out who stole the birthday feast. Clues can be found on each page! I myself am a mystery lover and believe this will be intriguing for young children because their imaginations are so vast!

The Eleventh Hour is a mystery told in poetry and illustrated with elaborate drawings. The vocabulary is advanced for the type of book it is. Words like "espoused" and "flourish" are used. The context makes it easy for a child to figure it out. The fun of the book is reading the verses that tell

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the mystery and then examining the pictures to see all the things that are happening.

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Sumptuously illustrated, entertaining and intellectually challenging mystery. Tons of clues and puzzles, but plenty of red herrings--I certainly never came close to solving it as a child, and I don't think I could've done it as an adult, either.

The puzzle part was fun- trying to figure out the mystery was fun and the pictures were interesting, but the story was not great.

I enjoyed the rhyming, cute story of the games and activities of Horace's 11th birthday. My 9 year old giggled quite a bit throughout the story, such as when the pig trips over the mouse. We really enjoyed this book together, but I must admit she solved it and I was not able to! My daughter guessed

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it pretty quickly and explained her reasoning based on the illustrations. She was correct and I was floored :)

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This is a story told in rhyme- students must look carefully at the pages to uncover the mystery- who ate the birthday feast. The back pages include a special "Top Secret" section that helps you to understand each illustration and find the clues to solve the mystery.

Fun...but I need other people to "read" it with me. Some of the puzzles are obvious (not the solutions, just that there's a puzzle and what it is), some are obscure to incomprehensibility (do the numbers on the dice in the frame mean something, and if so what?). Some of the puzzles are reasonably

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easy to solve, too - anagrams and the like. The Morse code is going to take some research. And I can't answer the big question at all - that will take some work yet. The story is extremely simple, the pictures are (as always with Graeme Base) gorgeous and incredibly complicated. I'm pleased that there's an answer in the back - it's still sealed, though, and I won't be opening it until we have a chance to work on the puzzles. I'm going to take it on our family vacation and enlist everyone's help. Unfortunately we won't have any kids around - we adults will just have to work it out ourselves.

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love solving this!!!!! I've always needed help with it - though I never really tried to solve it on my own :)

Too difficult for my old eyes.  Same comment in the companion puzzle book by Base.  I did try, and do recommend them to folks who have patience, strong eyes, and good light.

This book should not be categorized as easy but I loved it. Unfortunately, I did not solve the case and that made me upset. I think this is for older, high school children. I read some of the solution because I could not understand. After reading part of it I started noticing all the little

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details. This is a good mystery that really makes you think and you have to pay close attention to detail. I don't think I would have ever solved this mystery. Good read!

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