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The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery

graeme base

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Reading The Eleventh Hour is like running a marathon: one finishes exhausted but satisfied. Graeme Base, creator of the popular Animalia, has crafted another intricately wrought, gorgeously illustrated picture book, this time a mystery in verse. When Horace the Elephant decides to throw himself a party for his 11th birthday, he never suspects a crime will be committed by lunchtime. Who has stolen the birthday feast? As with any good mystery, everyone is guilty until proven innocent. The proof lies in the myriad clues embedded in each glorious illustration. Young sleuths will delight in decoding the complex messages that pop up in unexpected places.

null pages, Hardcover

First published January 1,1988
Literary awards
childrens book council of australia award, canberras own outstanding list (cool) awards, young australians best book award (yabba), 

This edition

Format
null pages, Hardcover
Published
January 1, 1988 by
ISBN
ASIN
B0DTRNQ62D
Language
English

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About the author

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graeme base

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Rating(3.8 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
Lecus01
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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One of the most amazing illustrations I've ever seen in children's books. Can't believe I've never heard of Base before now. The pictures are so detailed and there are hundreds of things going on in them, you could just look for hours. In this case, there's a mystery to be solved and some really fun clues to be looking for in the pictures. Not easy enough of a mystery for a small child, but just tough enough for my 1st grader, and it kept me interested too! The clues are hidden in the pictures and many deal with letters and words. Lots of fun and a book we'll go back to over and over again.
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dkchacha
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Stunning artwork! I think I'll have to work on the mystery for a bit...
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tyc33
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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I usually don't review picture books, but this is the most author-indulgent thing I've ever read.

Every page is indeed covered with challenging codes and clues, but 98% of them are either useless or actively misleading. Some of them are just inside jokes the author wanted to include. A lot of them literally say "red herring." That doesn't motivate me to find more clues.

Finding the clues is seriously the least efficient way you can solve this mystery. I did figure out who did it, but I didn't use the clues once, and I regretted bothering with them at all. It feels like I'm supposed to admire the sheer amount of clues there were instead of considering their actual (lack of) utility.

Plus, I was really bored the whole time. It's hard to make a picture book so boring with so few pages, but this one managed. There is no story. It's just about this elephant's party, which is as needlessly elaborate as this book; and the stakes for the mystery for ridiculously low. You're not even helping the innocent animals solve the little mystery because the clues aren't part of the plot.

Finding the culprit doesn't impact the story in any way. Your only reward is pages upon pages of pictureless explanation of every one of the dozens of pointless clues hidden in the book. It was so incredibly pedantic, I wanted to stop reading. It would spend an entire paragraph proudly explaining how, if you look closely, the wall says "tick tock." :O

How does that help me??? It doesn't!!! I'm just supposed to marvel at the fact that it's there.

There are other interactive mystery books for kids. Read one of them instead.
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lexxing
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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In this "curious mystery" by Graeme Base, author of Animalia,
Horace Elephant invites 11 friends to his eleventh birthday party. After a great deal of elaborate preparation, games, and sport, the awesome feast prepared by Horace is stolen! Which guest was responsible for this heinous crime? The brilliantly embedded clues and breathtaking illustrations contribute to the clever rhyming tale in this modern masterpiece.

No elementary school classroom or personal library is complete without The Eleventh Hour. This intricately constructed mystery is supported by magnificent illustrations, clues in borders, and gratefully, by detailed author's notes in the back of the book that help young sleuths (and adults) locate the brilliantly conceived clues. The whimsical illustrations are so impeccably detailed that even young primary students may be able to infer the storyline of the mystery, but the sophisticated vocabulary and invitation to engage in "observation and deduction" will prove challenging for older students and adults as well. The various explanations of the clues and solution to the mystery are contained in a sealed section at the end of the book called "The Inside Story" so the urge to cheat is foiled by the clever "packaging." There is also a cryptic section entitled "Notes for Detectives" that invites the reader to crack a code. This book would be an outstanding addition to a mystery genre unit in elementary grades or middle school. It is to the I Spy books what Caviar is to Cheetoes.
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Madokachan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Wow! This was an amazing book and the illustrations were outstanding. It kept my daughter and I busy for a few days working out the clues but I think she did a better job than I did.
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Vibara
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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"The Eleventh Hour" by Graeme Base is about an elephant named Horace. Horace is having an extravagant birthday party. He invites all of his friends and each one comes in a costume. Throughout the story they play games. There's a feast, but towards the end the food disappears! Horace isn't saddened though because he reappears with sandwiches and his humungo surprise birthday cake.
The genre of this text is mystery. The lexile number is 1070. The author has won numerous awards: Children's Book Council of Australia Award for Picture Book of the Year--Joint Winner (1989), Canberra's Own Outstanding List (COOL) Awards for Section 2 Fiction for Younger Readers (1994), Young Australians' Best Book Award (YABBA) for Section1-Picture Storybook (1989).
"The Eleventh Hour" is a great companion to "Theodore Boone Kid Lawyer" by John Grisham. Both books are mysteries. The reader has to look between the lines at the evidence and clues that are strewn throughout the text. Both mysteries occur when the characters least expect it. Both are great reads!
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