The Eleventh Hour

Author: Graeme Base
Genre: Picture Book, mystery
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Copyright Date: 1989
Pages of Book: 32
Reading Level: Ages 9-12

Summary
"The Eleventh Hour" is incredible. In the story, Horace is turning eleven years old so he invites ten of his friends to his house for a party. He makes a fabulous, elaborate meal for them all to eat once it was "the eleventh hour". Before they eat the feast Horace prepared, they play a bunch of games. Once it's finally time to eat, they go to the banquet hall only to find that the feast has been completely eaten up! They did not know who ate all the food, but they knew it was one of the eleven people there. Graeme Base then leaves it up to you to figure out who the thief is! After figuring out the mystery, you discover that Kilroy the mouse is the real thief. The pictures by Graeme Base are so detailed, intricate, and full of color. Each page in this book also has a border that goes along with the contents of the page. Every page of this book has clues hidden in it, and they are hard to find! The clues are all to help you find who stole the feast. You have to use common sense to figure out who the thief is and all of the hints hidden within each illustration. The cleverness and thought that went into this book is amazing!

My Reaction
When I first read this book, it was funny because I was just going along enjoying the story, not realizing I was supposed to look for clues and hints in the picture. Once I got to the end, I realized I was supposed to figure it out so I went back through the book trying to find all of the hints! I found some, but I definitely did not find them all. It's a good thing that Graeme Base included "The Inside Story" or else I probably would have never figured it out! Despite the fact that I couldn't solve the mystery myself, I loved the book. The story itself was just adorable, and the pictures were superb.

Recommendations
I would recommend this to anyone looking for a fun, good mystery. As far as the mystery goes, it's definitely for older kids to solve and try to figure out. However, I think younger kids can enjoy the illustrations and story as well.

Potential Problems/Conflicts
I couldn't really see any problems in the story, except maybe the fact that one of the characters is a thief... Also I think some people might get frustrated trying to solve the mystery by the clues that are given. It's super hard! But other than that, I didn't have any problems with the book.