The Eleventh Hour: A Curious M

Base, Graeme

ISBN 10: 0810908514 / ISBN 13: 9780810908512

Published by Harry N. Abrams, 1989

Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00103442446

Synopsis:

An elephant's eleventh birthday party is marked by eleven games preceding the banquet to be eaten at the eleventh hour; but when the time to eat arrives, the birthday feast has disappeared. The reader is invited to guess the thief.

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.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Eleventh Hour: A Curious M
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Publication Date: 1989
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good