The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery (Signed on Title Page with Doodle, Dated)

Base, Graeme

ISBN 10: 0810908514 / ISBN 13: 9780810908512

Published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1988

About this Item

SIGNED, FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING (dated 1988, no additional printings listed) New York, Little, Brown and Company, 1988. NEW. Signed by the Author/Artist on the Title Page with a Doodle and Dated "20th Sept 2008". Dust Jacket Bright, no wear, now protected in a Brodart cover. Pictorial Boards Fine, no wear, no bumps. Not ex-library. No remainder mark. Binding Tight and Square. The seal to the "Top Secret" solution to the mystery has not been opened. A very nice copy of this beautiful children's picture book. Books are Carefully Packed and Shipped Daily with Delivery Confirmation from a Dry, Smoke-Free shop.

Seller Inventory # 3975 CHILD539

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery (Signed on Title Page with Doodle, Dated)
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810908514
• ISBN 13: 9780810908512
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Graeme Base
• Edition: Signed, First Edition, First Printing.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Children's

About this title

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.