The Eleventh Hour

The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base is a wonderful mystery picture book for children. When Horace, the elephant turns eleven he plans a grand affair. Friends are invited, party games are chosen and a beautiful birthday feast is made. The day of the party arrives and all of his friends show up in their best costumes. Throughout the day, they all play the different games waiting for the eleventh hour when they can finally devour the feast. To their horror, the eleventh hour comes and the feast is gone. One of the guest is a thief! Can they figure out who did it?

As adults we think of mystery books being chapter books. There are a lot of details that go into writing these books which sometimes means a longer book. But that is not always the case. The Eleventh Hour is a picture book that younger readers can understand and enjoy. The detailed pictures tell the story very well along with the text. They are colorful, full-spread illustrations that help with solving the case presented in the story. Without these hints, the mystery would be very difficult to solve. With rhyming and music like words, the storyline keeps children’s attention. The use of animals also makes it even more fun and engaging. Kids can imagine this event actually taking place in their imagination. It’s something that they could come up with. These elements make this book very high quality.

To be considered under the mystery genre, stories must have some characteristics. The Eleventh Hour has these mystery elements. One of these is the feeling of suspense and surprise. There is definitely surprise when the characters find the feast gone. They had been waiting all day for this banquet and it all comes crashing down in a second. Then comes the suspense of who the thief is. With each new excuse from the characters, the suspense really builds. It seems that none of them did it, but that’s impossible. Another element of mystery is foreshadowing. Throughout The Eleventh Hour, there was simple foreshadowing. First with each new game. As the day continued, there was new game after new game. This makes the reader feel as if it is building up to something important because of the length of time that has gone by. The theft is also foreshadowed by how the characters are portrayed. At every game, there was someone who was called out on cheating. It was leaving doubt within the readers’ mind of the integrity of characters. This led up to the climax of the mystery. One other element that this story has is the “puzzle” element and idea gaps. After the story ends, there is still no conclusion on who stole the feast. This allows for the readers to fill in their own ideas to the story and solve the puzzle. By going back through the book, they can deduce who the real thief was.

As a children’s mystery, The Eleventh Hour is a great choice. It has many elements that make a wonderful puzzle for children to solve. With quality pictures and a quality story, this story can be classified as a high quality children’s book.