This is the cutest little book with a great mystery to solve I just think it would take to long to go through with a class that only has 30 mins. I will read this to my kids to see if they can figure out who ate the feast.

Beautiful rhyming and artwork.

Here is a story about Horace's (an elephant) eleventh birthday party, and apparently there's a mystery to solve! The mystery isn't revealed until near the end, and the book definitely requires that you look back through it to solve the mystery.

Overall, mystery hunting aside, I enjoyed this book, the fun characters, and the whimsical, jam-packed illustrations! For a rhyming book, the rhymes were really pretty good! I didn't find myself tripping over the rhythm or words hardly at all!

For the mystery, well, I didn't read the entirety of the solutions, but I skimmed to figure out how the puzzles where to be solved. My only gripe was that the end note made it appear that the mystery would be easily solved by looking at the pictures, which led me to think a simple glance back through would suffice. But, for better or worse, such is not the case. These clues are definitely only going to be found by those willing to spend several hours searching and decoding, something which I probably would have loved at around 10 to my tweens. There's bound to be several hours worth of fun, but only for those who don't mind the tediousness required. But, knowing how all the clues worked into the story, I was even more impressed with the illustrations!

So, definitely a fun, creative book/hidden clues mystery! And if you like that sort of book, I think you'll love this!!

A wonderful mystery for children combined with a charming tale.

So many puzzle, so much fun.

This is a fun book with layers of mystery! It was hard to distinguish which clues to ignore and which ones to take seriously. Nevertheless, it’s a charming poetic read for a young audience and an entertaining puzzle to solve for an older audience!

This one takes some real concentration. I kept getting lost in the fabulous illustrations and I missed some clues the first time through, but I finally caught on! A fabulous book for this time of quarantine. Wish I had smaller children to enjoy this one with.

The Eleventh Hour is a tale of mystery. The main character Horace decides to throw a large party for his 11th birthday. The theme of the party is a costume masquerade. The party is starting until he realized that all the food is gone. Horace is shocked and tries to discover who dunnit. The story is beautifully illustrated and is written in rhymes. I think that this book creates a sense of wonder to whoever reads it.

I think that this book would be fun to do in a classroom with a masquerade theme. I would probably use this book for older elementary school students (3rd- 5th) and have students create predictions about what they think happens next on a little paper masquerade mask. I think that it is important to involve mystery books in the classroom especially when working with making inferences and predictions. I think that using a book written in rhyme is beneficiary to help expose students to different styles of writing.

Wonderful rhyming, rhythm, and story! Superb artwork! A story filled with merriment and mystery. How did I miss this one for my children. This book will sure to spark the brain cells of any youngster.

Horace the Elephant is planning a spectacular party for his 11th birthday. He plans all sorts of games and events, such as pool, chess, and tennis. The most important part of the party, however, is the giant feast that he promises to feed his guests on the 11th hour. Once the time to feast arrives, all of the food is gone! Every guest denies stealing the food, but someone has to be lying. Who could commit such an atrocious act?

This book is unnecessarily long, meaning that about half of the pages had nothing to do with the actual plot. It gets boring up until the crime is committed. The one thing this mystery book lacks is the suspenseful element that keeps readers interested. Instead, the book does not discuss the actual mystery until the very end, and then it cuts off and leaves the reader guessing at who is the culprit. However, in the very back of the book there is a note that when correctly deciphered, tells who did the crime. Also, there are pages sealed together by a sticker that hold the answer to the mystery. This interactive investigative work is a fun alternative to the typical way a mystery is solved since it allows kids to become investigators, which could be fun for kids who love mystery books. There is a red herring, the cat, which throws the reader off and leaves them stumped. The illustrations in this book are phenomenal. They are draw with such detail that it seems incredible real, especially the characters' eyes. Every illustration has a lot of detail and color/patterns so that the answer to the mystery isn't obvious since it is hidden in the drawings. Overall, this book would be excellent if it were shorter.

This is an all out fantastic mystery book written in the "who-done-it" style that calls back memories of the movie Clue with Tim Curry for me. It is also written in a simple rhyme pattern which helps draw the younger crowd in. In addition to the writing style, the artistic style of this book is jaw-dropping. The details put into the illustrations are amazing, so one could guess that this mystery is equally as deep. The book centers around Horace the elephant's 11th birthday costume party. He lives in a huge mansion and cooks a spectacular meal that any would die for. He invites all his animal friends who come dressed in their own unique costumes. There is a zebra who is a punk rocker, a rhino who is an astronaut, and a pig who is an admiral to name a few. Throughout the days festivities, someone sneaks away to eat all the food before the guests get to sink their teeth into it. But who ate all the food?! It takes some great detective work and a close look at the pictures to solve this one. There is even a secret coded message at the books end to decode if you find the thief. Also, sealed in the back of the book is a folder of sorts by the author with all the clues written out. There are no cheap punches in this picture book.
I think one of the highlights of this book is the creativity behind it. I would use this in the classroom to help the students draw inspiration from and get their own creative juices flowing. Reading this book aloud to the class before a creative writing writer's workshop would be great. A minilesson could be made around descriptive phrases in the book. For example, the author writes about the food, "A wondrous spread of cakes and buns and jugs of lemonade." Hopefully after focusing in on some of the author's phrasing, the students would be able to implement something similar for their writer's workshop pieces. Another lesson could be as simple as having groups of students trying to solve the mystery of the book! If you had enough copies, you could break the class into small groups and give them each a book. You should probably take out the answers first so the students won't be tempted to peak. This would be similar to a break-out activity that are also available in classrooms, but this one would be centered around a book! This activity would be a great way to develop students decoding skills that will help support their growth in reading comprehension.
Lastly, I solved it! Can you?!

I’m glad my parents saved this for me because I loved reading this to my 4-year old. We’ll enjoy this many more times in the next few years as he realizes all of the amazing illustrations include intriguing puzzles. I highly recommend Graeme Base books for their incredible art and fun play with words.