The Eleventh Hour

The Eleventh Hour
Written and Illustrated by Graeme Base	Abrams, Harry N., Inc.
Fiction	1993
Reading Level age 4-8	32 pages

Summary

Horace the elephant is turning eleven and hosting a birthday party. He invites ten of his friends to his costume party. They arrive as two ballerinas, a princess, judge, admiral, astronaut, Cleopatra, a punk, a Musketeer and an Indian. They are shown the great banquet prepared but not to be eaten until 11:00. The party was carefully planned with sack races, musical chairs, card and board games, tennis and more. All the animal guests are having fun but think of the wonderful feast waiting for them in the dining room. Finally the clock truck eleven, all the animals rushed inside for the delicious meal. But when they arrived, all the food had been eaten, everything was gone! The animals are in an uproar shouting their innocence until Horace disappeared into the kitchen and emerged with sandwiches and the birthday cake which wasn’t in the dining room with all the other food. They set up a picnic and ate their wheat bread sandwiches and cake. This book has many clues on every page as to who the culprit. If all the puzzles were deciphered, then the reader would find that Kilroy the mouse ate the feast; but he didn’t eat it all alone, for as he said it would be too much for one mouse to eat, one hundred and eleven of his mice cousins his themselves around the property and showed up to eat the food. In the back, it also provides the answer and all the messages de-coded. Once figured that the mice were the offenders, the reader can go back and find all 111 mice hidden within the pages. The mice aren’t detailed, but just simple outlines. The number of the mice on the page is always circled somewhere in the pictures.

Response

I loved that there were different levels of interaction. I could read the book without noticing the codes and think it was a great book written in verse with a cliff hanger ending. Then I could read Inside Story at the end of the story and find the answers, or I could then be a sleuth and crack the many codes and all the clocks that are on the pages to help solve the mystery. Then when I realized that there was more than one criminal, go back and find all the mice. It was an engaging book that could have hours spent over it, puzzling it over and over until every clue had been discovered and followed. The pictures are detailed and engaging. This quote from Publishers Weekly encompasses the praise for this book: “Lush, intricately detailed illustrations…comprise a sort of hide-and-seek… The fun of pouring over the pictures for hidden messages… is, happily, matched by the enjoyment derived from the text, witty, ingenious verses.”

Potential Problems

There are so many codes to break and figure out, if one is a perfectionist and has to solve everyone, it might be overwhelming and frustrating. It is only 32 pages, but it can take from 20 minutes to read with a young child to hours with older children as they read more into the clues in the pictures.

Recommendations

I would recommend this book to children who love to solve mysteries. This doesn’t mention the culprit in the text out right, the reader need to want to find out to solve the mystery. It would be good as an application of math and problem solving skills.