The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "When Horace turned Eleven he decided there should be Some kind of celebration..." (more)
Key Phrases: bingo board, The Rhino

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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 an alternate 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.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First American Edition edition (September 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810908514
• ISBN-13: 978-0810908512
• Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 9.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #418,850 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing mystery for fun book lovers, December 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Eleventh Hour (Hardcover)

I first encountered this book while babysitting, many years ago. It was the kids' new favorite book (they were aged 6-10 perhaps). I read it to them & was enchanted with it (they just liked the story). I put the kids to bed & proceeded to spend 3+ hours (and I was a TV-loving young adult) trying to solve all the riddles & the find the answer to the mystery. I finally figured it out, but later, when I read the previously sealed "who-dunnit" section, I realized how much I'd missed in fantastically re-created architecture & secreted clues & jokes. The author/illustrator is incredibly imaginative & incorporates amazing artistry. I was totally engrossed & completely hooked. The family who introduced me to this book felt strongly about providing intelligent, stimulating & highly creative resources to their children. Since then I have bought this as a gift more than once... The story is simple & rhymes pleasantly so that it is appealing to children. The pictures are complex & fantastic to look at. However, I'm sure the wonder & adventure I found is lost on many children & adults. They may not have the patience or love of mystery that I do, but perhaps they could grow into it, certainly, over time, new discoveries would appear to even the most uninterested reader.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic book!, November 2, 2005

By	Azuree Devine "blue angel" (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My mother first bought this book in 1989. She didn't know about anything about Graeme Base, but was greatly impressed by the illustrations and got it for my siblings and I to pore over. Not only were the illustrations lively and BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL, but the mystery itself was so cleverly set up! I never would have guessed...actually we did correctly guess who it was, but we had no idea how until after we opened the seal in the back. Once we did, we realized we didn't know the half of it. By the way, did anybody ever find out the name of the Swan? Because my older sister did, and that was even harder to figure out than "Who Stole The Feast?" (Here's a hint, and I hope it doesn't give the answer away: The Card Game) I guarantee if you buy this book, you will NOT be disappointed!
P.S. "Animalia" was pretty good, too!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Book., July 31, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Eleventh Hour (Hardcover)

I`m a Thirteen year old, and i got this book from my brother when i was about 3. I read it up until i was about 11. I never did read the pages within the seal [of course, my brother had already broken it - he`s about 9 years older than me] and i figured it out. last night i looked through the pages of the seal, and i had figured everything out, EXCEPT the swans name. i really want to know her name. what helped me the most figuring it out was the musical notes, i played them out on the piano and it was a dead give away. but anyways, i would recommend this to ANY other child. Along with Animaila - i still read these books. [and in animalia, try to find the kid with the shirt in all the illustrations.]