I loved this book as a kid and was so happy to find it at the park's book exchange. I spent the whole day studying the pictures, trying to find every riddle, clue, and hidden message. I opened the answers at the end and was surprised at some of the things Base hid throughout the book that I didn't notice, but I was also pleased at some of the more difficult clues I did find. I highly recommend this book to lovers of whodunnit mysteries and hidden object games. Even though I read the answers, this book will delight for many more years.

This book was one of my childhood favourites!!! It's one of those books that every time you open it, you notice something different! There's always several clues on every page and it took me AGES to actually solve the mystery (the answers are at the back). The story is also pretty good too. Would definitely recommend but just make sure you've got several hours free because there's a lot of clues + interesting little side notes to discover! :D

3.5-4 stars depending on if I'm tired or not, lol!

Actually, this is the type of book my kids would have loved when they were young, although the puzzle is actually really tough and I wouldn't imagine anyone under 3rd grade would have an easy time figuring out the puzzles, let alone a preschooler! But the story is fun without having to worry about the puzzle and the illustrations are awesome.

In terms of the clues, maybe it's because I'm getting old, but my eyes couldn't easily see all the clues and I really think I would need a magnifying glass to see every detail so I could decipher the clues. I think overall, this would be a fun book to read with a child and have the child use their sharp eyes to spot clues and then you could jot down the clues and together solve the mystery.

But I love the different layers that are in this book. There's the story with the beautiful illustrations. There are the clues scattered throughout to lead you to letters that then need to be unscrambled or decoded in some way. There are the mice you can find on every page, with a clue to how many there are (my kids would have loved this part). And there's the various clues and riddles that you have to read through to try to figure out who the culprit was!

Overall, I think this would be a fun book to read with kids and then over a series of nights, tackle each page of clues and see what you can unravel. But I would do this more for kids who naturally like puzzles or like to spot things in pictures, and I would say it might be better for kids 4th grade and up.

Just reread this for the first time since I was a kid. The art and the mystery still amaze me! Maxwell the tiger being dressed as an Indian has not aged well (I wonder if it's meant as a joke, because he's a Bengal tiger, i.e. from India, but he's dressed as an American Indian? Still, not great). Still, I really like the book.

It cracks me up that the author says at the end of the book that "With a little close observation and some simple deduction it is quite easy to discover" the solution to the mystery. Bro, I am a full adult who already knew the answer to the mystery and I still didn't find half of your clues. Though once I read the answer key, I love how clever the clues are! Highly recommend this for young readers (like, ages 8 to 12 at least, if you want them to have any chance of finding the clues). Even if they don't catch every clue (they won't), they'll feel really smart for the ones they do find!

The illustration are really beattiful.

This book is quite unique. It involves eleven different exotic animals. The elephant is the birthday boy who is turning eleven. He invites ten of his best friends to his part which they would all eat at the eleventh hour a great feast. Before the feast though they are to play eleven different games. Once the eleventh hour has been reached they all race to the feast but it had been eaten. Who ate the feat? What will they eat?

This book can be used in many ways throughout the classroom. One specific way is to do a pre-reading activity that helps the students connect the themes of the book to prior knowledge -- what do you like about birthdays? What does your family have to do to prepare for them?

When continuing the book orientation, flick through the book and point out selected pages, and stop and look at tricky words. Take the opportunity to talk about key vocabulary from the text, focusing on the language used to describe the party. Ask the students if they have ever received an invitation (page 2). Discuss what a grand affair (page 3) might be. Encourage the class to discuss what the description makes them think of and consider synonyms that we might use.

Finally, ask the class to make predictions about what might happen in the book based on the first look at the images only. Note these on the whiteboard or chart for discussion after the first reading.

A fun mystery with multiple clues to find, ciphers, and puzzles to solve, in beautiful artwork. Although the crime itself was a terrible thing to do to Horace on his 11th birthday or anytime.
P.S. Beware of red herrings.

This book was amazing....ly frustrating! The illustrations are fantastically detailed and the rhyming fun, but solving the puzzle itself gets very complex in that most of the hidden codes and 'clues' have very little to do with solving the mystery and intentionally send you on a wild-goose chase or are simply author indulgences. Despite all those so completely ANNOYING red herrings, the whole family got into the spirit looking for clues and learning about everything from architecture and Egypt to International Morse and other codes.

Recommended for anyone that enjoys escape rooms, without having to leave the comfort of your own home, but take your time. We puzzled it out in 2 separate sittings, and it would have been more enjoyable to draw it out at a page or two a night.

What a fun book! I bought this book with no idea of the whimsy within. It's so amazing that I've already bought another of his books, and I've added a third to my wish list to get once we finish that one.

Asa, 11, and Jerusha, 9, and I spent about two weeks working on solving the mystery in this book, every day for about 30 minutes. There were times when Asa wanted to jump ahead and get to the meat of the clues, but Jerusha and I wanted to go page by page and find every single little clue.

But guess what? WE DIDNT EVEN COME CLOSE. We were shocked by how many clues we missed.

In the end, we were completely wrong.

We had so much fun doing it that we didnt even care we lost.

Get this book!

As others have noted, many of the clues are not helpful to solving the mystery. This is a very frustrating feature of an otherwise interesting book that takes a keen eye and focus to complete. The mystery itself is revealed in a very frustrating way as well as there is very little to clue even the most keen detective into the culprit of this who-done-it tale. Mysteries that encourage young problem solvers should be challenging but purposeful and without a twist at the end. This writer could have improved their work by centering a young reader while crafting this overall puzzle. Ultimately we are seeing a clever writer with a good wit who unfortunately poorly executed this work.

Very clever book that will entertain for hours. Illustrations are magical with hidden clues, and drawings. So much in this little book that could absorb (especially a child) for very long periods of time.

If I could give The Eleventh Hour 100 stars I would! This is the most brilliant picture book I've ever experienced! Besides the beautiful illustrations and the delightful story- the whole premise for this book is WONDERFUL! My 17 year old and I sat for two hours pouring over the clues, studiously working through each puzzle. By the end our brains hurt and we were laughing at the brilliance of what seemed at first to be a very simple story, but had turned out to be the most "non-screen" fun we've had in a long time. 

I highly recommend The Eleventh Hour for lovers of books, and children of all ages- and their adults!