Customer Reviews

Enigma: A Magical Mystery

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To date, Animalia, The Eleventh Hour, and The Waterhole are my favorite of Graeme Base's offerings. Animalia and The Waterhole are read frequently in our home to teach ABCs and 1-10 counting as well as observation skills, and also for some good old fashioned fun reading aloud with fun and different voices!!

My spouse and I enjoy reading The Eleventh Hour because of all the mysteries to solve - the hidden images, the hidden puzzles, and the clues interspersed between text and illustration.

I was excited to see the newest offering, Enigma. I immediately signed up to pre-order. I am grateful that I did! This book is wonderful! The rhyme is similar to the text in Base's other books - occasionally forced, but still fun to read! Perhaps it's because of all the time I've spent pouring over the Eleventh Hour, but many of the hidden clues were easy to find and decipher in this book.

Our elementary-school-aged children find the mystery in this book to be perfect! One is even trying to break the cipher without resorting to opening the key in the back of the book.

The story is engaging and entertaining. Young Bertie Badger goes from room-to-room in the Entertainers' retirement home to solve the mystery of the missing props. Each page, each entertainer, represtents a different country. Like Animalia, like The Waterhole, like so many of Base's other books, the details of the backdrops add significantly to the richness and the texture of the tale he weaves.

If you're looking for Base's best mystery book - buy the Eleventh Hour. If you're looking for a fun mystery with a cipher-code to break, great for an elementary reader, buy this book! It has become a treasured addition to my Graeme Base collection.

Animalia (Picture Puffins)
The Water Hole
Eleventh Hour

I LOVE Graeme Base and if you are not familiar with him or his books, you should be. His books and art work is phenominal. This is my daughters favorite book by Base followed by Animalia. She likes to find the hidden pictures on each page. This book has a code you have to unlock at the end of the book and it is so much fun. My daughter is 5 and she has me read it to her at least 3 times a day. This is a wonderful book and I swear it will be a good investment to any book lover.

Graeme Base is easily my favorite children's book author/illustrator, and 'Enigma' provided my daughter's 3/4th grade combo class one of the most delightful hours of the entire school year! I purchased 3 copies of the book so all the kids could be close enough to see the beautifully detailed illustrations, made 25 copies of the coded message and the key, then went in and read the book to the class one morning. Afterwards, the class broke up into groups of 4 and began deciphering the coded messages, passing the 3 books among the groups to find the hidden objects where the decoded messages said they would be. It was a race to the finish, and I easily had as much fun as the kids did! Graeme you're an absolute treasure! After you fall in love with 'Enigma', make sure you also grab 'The Discovery of Dragons' and, best of all, 'The Worst Band in the Universe'. (I've been known to read that one even without kids around!)

I love this book, I read it to my 7 & 4yr old nieces who love it, while the words were a little advanced for the 4 year old she understood the story overall, I would recommend it for boys and girls from 5yrs old up. Children will be able to read the book for themselves at about age 8/9, and it will be fun (and still 'cool') for children up to about age 10.

I thought this book was really lovely, with a lovely message to it.

Bertie Badger loves visiting his Grandpa at the Retirement Home for Elderly Magicians because he always gets treated to an impromptu magic show. This time, however, he is in for a disappointment as Grandpa's magic want, hat, cape and even his magic bunny have all disappeared. Not only that, but as Bertie goes from room to room interviewing the other retired magicians, he finds that their magical accessories have also disappeared. Bertie vows to solve the mystery, but, alas, he fails to do so before the culprit reveal himself. And worse, said culprit can't remember what he did with all the magical implements. But never fear, Bertie's backpack just happens to contain replacement items and the show goes on.

In true Graeme Base style, there is much going on in these pages and much to absorb and delight the eyes. Solving the mystery is actually the least notable part of the adventure. As you might expect, all the missing items are hidden within the richly illustrated pictures if only you are observant enough to find them. And should you need help, you need only crack the code the culprit used for his notes. To crack the code, you will need to unlock the decoder at the end. That, in turn, can be done if you find the answers hidden in one of the pictures (with a hint hidden in another picture). And when you've finished all that, there are still more secrets to reveal, such as the prints left behind by the culprit and deducing each character's hometown. All-in-all, hours of puzzle-solving fun for the intrepid young (or old!) mind.

This book doesn't pack quite the wallop that "Eleventh Hour" did. The "mystery" solves itself before the book is finished. There are not nearly as many puzzles to solve or different types of codes to unravel. I also found it surprisingly easy to find the picture that reveals the secret to unlock the decoder. I think that's the kind of thing you could spent hours or days looking for and then feeling rather foolish when you finally figure it out. I just got lucky to stumble on it quickly. And once you've opened the decoder, decoding the locations of the missing items is quite straightforward (although I would encourage you to look for the hidden items first without looking to the message - most of them are quite doable if you're familiar with Graeme Base's style).

Nonetheless, this book ranks among the top puzzle books and will surely delight Graeme Base fans old and young alike. Graeme Base is an imaginative and artistic genius.

I love every book that Graeme Base puts out and this is no exception. This book is much more kid friendly than The Eleventh Hour, so elementary-aged kids should be able to solve the riddle and the codes. We enjoyed it!

Beautiful illustrations with a story easy to read that provides mysteries for various ages to enjoy unraveling.

We came at this book from two different directions. My dragon-crazed 4th-grader loves Graeme Base's "The Discovery of Dragons" and pores over those itty-bitty intricate illustrations and details. And as a family, we have been doing a summer homeschool unit on Ancient Egypt, complete with hieroglyphics.

This book is told in rhyme, which means little guys will sit still while you read it to them. There's a search for hidden objects, a key to unlock (really -- you have to discover the clues, turn three dials, and then unlock the cipher. Very cool), and a cute story about Bertie and his grandfather.

This book gets the summertime-mom seal of approval. Hours of enjoyment, even for families with widespread ages and interests.

This is a very popular book with our children in our school, both girls and boys. They love the codes in the back of the book. Even our 6th graders ask for this book. So when the one I had became to badly damaged, I was greatly relieved to find another on Amazon. So thank you for the prompt shipment and for having one in such good condition. Children are hard on books no matter how much I try to teach them to be careful. I'm always turn to Amazon to get replacements in hopes they will have it, and at an affordable price. we don't have a budget for books anymore so it is much harder to come by. Thank you again.

Graeme Base's books are really terrific. The art work is amazing, and finding all of the hidden items is fun for kids and adults.