#138 of 1001 · December 16, 2020

You are cordially invited to test your wits on an elegant mystery: @graemebase’s The Eleventh Hour. Horace the Elephant invites his friends to a fancy dress party in honor of his eleventh birthday. He prepares in advance a sumptuous array of pastries and cakes and lays it out invitingly on a table, but forbids anyone to eat before the day’s games are finished. After the festivities, the guests rush back to the banquet hall only to discover that the delectable spread of desserts has been picked clean, with not a morsel remaining. The concluding lines challenge the reader to solve the puzzle based on cryptographic clues hidden throughout the book. Base, through his dazzling illustrations and irresistible rhyming couplets in iambic alexandrine, has constructed a true enigma tempered by a lightly madcap touch. #graemebase #eleventhhour #animals #birthday #mystery #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks