I would love to read this book about mysteries on an elephants eleventh birthday

Graeme Base lends his talents and creates a uniquely illustrated and smartly written kids picture book. The kids will poor over of the illustrations before they allow you to continue reading.

Ok this may be the coolest kids book ever, if you have a smart kid who likes puzzles or codes. It took us two or three HOURS to solve the book. It was so exciting that we did it in one sitting, working like mad. It is that absorbing. He did solve it, but we had to resort to a hint off the internet to find the swan's name. I'd say a smart 8 year old and up can do it, maybe with some help. Besides being super fun, the book is also lovely. My kid is now enjoying looking back at the amazing illustrations. Sort of like a daVinci code for kids, except this book was way better than that. I'm buying a bunch of these to give out as birthday gifts to the kids in my life.

# Puzzles More Intricate than Most Escape Rooms, in a Book!

This is definitely a new favorite of mine and it can literally be read by any age. It was so much fun because while I was looking for books I thought this was just going to be a simple mystery book for kids, BUT ITS AN ACTUAL MYSTERY! The book has the sealed answer at the end and everything. I’m still looking for clues I could have missed on each page. The illustrations are magnificent and take this book to a whole new level for readers introducing them to codes and out of the box thinking. Definitely a good investment for a library.

Been using The Eleventh Hour in the classroom for years and it's encouraging to still see students engaged by the puzzles and riddles contained in the illustrations.

You could easily spend 11 hours with The Eleventh Hour.

This is a book you could read in a few minutes, but if you want to solve the whodunit mystery within this 32-page story, prepare to spend several hours poring over the text and illustrations. Despite the author’s claim on the Notes for Detectives page that it is quite easy to discover which of the 11 animals stole the feast, it is not. So, please don’t feel stupid if you don’t figure it out right away. There is an easy way to figure it out, however, that is presented on that same Notes for Detectives page, and that is to solve the simple letter substitution code on that page. The first letter of the animal who stole the feast is the letter you substitute for the first letter of the coded message. If you simply plug in the first letter of each animal in turn, by the 10th try you should have the answer (you don’t need to do it 11 times, because if the 10th try doesn’t work, you automatically know the 11th one is correct).

One thing you should know if you read this book, is that you need really good eyesight or a really good magnifying glass. Because the illustrations are so finely detailed and the clues are buried in these details, they are many times quite difficult to spot. If you’re over 40, you will probably need some excellent reading glasses or that magnifying glass. You will also have to reread the text many times, and go back and forth between the pages, scrutinizing the text and illustrations. If you’re really into solving puzzles, you could easily spend all day with this book, so make sure you have no work to do before you pick it up and start reading.

This is one of the best detective stories I have ever read.

Author and Illustrator: Graeme Base
Age Recommendation: Pre-School/Kinder and up
Art Style: Bright
Topic/ Theme: Mystery and Friendship
Setting:A Mansion and it’s grounds

Graeme Base is a children book legend there is no denying that. His books are always full of creativity and intelligent design, each time they are read there is something new to see. The Eleventh Hour is no different. For the youngest readers, this is a bright, cheerful and engaging read written in a simple rhyming couplet comfortably read out loud. As readers get older there is more detail to see in the illustrations from finding all the characters to what they are doing/playing scene to scene and words to learn. For older readers, there is a mystery to be solved with multiple paths to the same solution.

This isn’t held in the same high reverence as Animalia, unlike that classic it tells a more linear narrative. Which is what it is, neither a good nor a bad thing. The plot is as simple as a costume birthday for an Elephant called Horace (the attending animals wear some rather cute costumes). The animals play a variety of games to pass the time until it is time to eat, these games take place in different environments suiting the animals. Like most Graeme Base books I recommend it to people of all ages. It is beautiful and enjoyable. (this isn’t the best review but books like this are hard to review for me and I still have to write one for Animalia at some point)<.p>

Delightful. Puzzle poem with gorgeous illustrations.

Blown Away! FANTASTIC! The whole family got in on this mystery. It really is a mystery too. I thought it was simply a story and it is and there is a mystery. The answer is sealed at the back of the book and we have not broken the seal yet to see the culprit. I didn't have time to go through the book to see who did it. There are clues, supposedly hidden on each page so it takes time. The kids are going to scour the pages today and see if they can figure it out. Even their parents are getting involved.

The art is beautiful. It is magnificent. Graeme uses a border like Jan Brett does and there are clues in it. I have read their are red herrings all over the place. I think the 7 year old might crack the case. The artwork is a Baroque feast for the eyes with eleven animals invited to a birthday party where the birthday boy made this huge feast that they can't eat until the 11th hour. Well, they play all kinds of games and by the time dinner come, someone ate all the food. Who did it? We don't know.

Anyone who wants to spoil me, I welcome the answer. I am in finals and don't have time to figure it out. I won't tell the kids. They can figure it out on their own.

How come I've never heard of Graeme Base? The artist is amazing. I want to read MORE! One of my new favorites.

The illustrations are a visual feast! And the rhymes aren't dull or silly. They mostly work brilliantly while moving the story along and including some great vocabulary. My daughter is busy working on solving the mystery. Recommended!

An 11 year old's imagination can get the best of them, let alone the fact that he is an elephant. In Graeme Base's detailed book an elephant turns 11 and throws a big party. He invites all of his friend, who are also various types of animals. They all get dressed up and go to this beautiful party with a huge feast. None of them are allowed to eat until the 11th hour, so in the meantime the have fun playing games. The ruckus of the games turns into some fights but all in all it ends in good times.

This book is a lot like I- spy with many hidden pictures inside. The pages are fully detailed and may even be considered cluttered. The art added another element to the story because they could be looked at alone as masterpieces. The pictures were very realistic of the animals, drawing the reader in more with the amusement that animals could act in this way. The rhyming style this book is written in makes it fun and engaging and also helps the reader learn pronunciations. Overall, this book has a lot going on, always keeping the reader interested. We highly recommend it.


Kate Ballan
Oksanna Scheidt
Jennifer Johnson