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Product Description
From Amazon
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.
Graeme Base used the buildings he saw during his travels through Africa, Asia, and Europe to design and decorate Horace's fantastic house. Astute readers may recognize Roman cathedrals, Scottish palaces, and stone carvings from India. Best of all, secreted in these walls are cryptic messages in Egyptian hieroglyphics, anagrams, and even Morse code to challenge the perceptive and deductive abilities of any reader "of tender years or long in tooth." The Eleventh Hour is a brilliant, rigorous, creative romp that no child (or adult) should miss. (All Ages) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
As in Base's Animalia , his lush, intricately detailed illustrations in The Eleventh Hour comprise a sort of visual hide-and-seek. Here, the stakes are clues to the solution of a mystery: Who has surreptitiously eaten the feast prepared for Horace the Elephant's 11th birthday party? The culprit could be any of a number of exotically costumed animal guests, from a pig dressed as an admiral to a pair of giraffes in tutus to a zebra gone punk. The fun of poring over the pictures for hidden messages and significant particulars is, happily, matched by the enjoyment derived from the text--witty, ingenious verses that ably skirt the singsong or mundane. It will take an exceptionally persistent sleuth to deduce the thief's identity; many readers may resort to breaking the seal to the "top secret" solution. Thus enlightened, those returning to the scenes of the crime may still find some clues difficult to discern; in particular, the large number of concealed "mice" are almost impossible to make out. But it is, as Base points out, the thrill of the chase that matters most; and on this count the work scores high marks. All ages.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this WITH your child!,
By Katie Nana mystery lover (Glendale, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery (Hardcover)
This is one amazing book! Illustrations, poetry, decoding all in one tome. Reading the review by batesrj I find s/he may have missed the point. Reading and discussing this book with your child(ren) might be one incredible adventure for all. Many years ago my son, age 12-13 at the time, and I began reading the book together about 7 p.m. in the evening. He and I loved playing games and this was a wonderful opportunity for something new. Decoding is always a fun challenge and he loved to create messages in code. We thought we would do a few pages each night. Little did we know how much fun decoding this mystery would be. Never opening the secret packet, we worked non-stop and solved the mystery about 2 or 3 in the morning! We still laugh and talk abaout the fun we had so long ago. I agree a child might not bbe able to decipher this alone, but working with a parent or other friends is a great way to encourage reading and collaboration. I even recommended this book to our school's GATE teacher who invited me to the class to discuss and work with her students.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Children's Novel,
By
This review is from: The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery (Hardcover)
Perfect for the curious and inquisitive child, the Eleventh Hour was one of my favorite books as a kid, I enjoyed every day it took me to solve the mystery, running with glee to my mom or dad every time I found a new clue, or solved another piece of the puzzle.So when I wanted to buy some books for a neice who loves to read the Eleventh Hour was at the top of my lengthy list. She has enjoyed the book and solved the mystery pretty quickly for an 8 year old, and even solved she still loves to spend hours looking through the book at its beautiful illustrations and try to find more hidden clues to the mystery. This is most certainly the perfect book for any imaginative and curious child!
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Mind Stretching Book,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery (Paperback)
This book is a fun book to read! It has very detailed illistrations. It is about an 11 year-old elephant who wants to invite his animal friends to his birthday party. He has a grand feast, but no one can eat it until the Eleventh Hour. To take up the time they play games. When it is time to eat the feast, they find that the food has vanished! You have to solve the mystery to find out who stole the feast. It is a fun and challenging book. It keeps your mind working!
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