Author: Graeme Base
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams Inc., New York
Copyright: 1993 edition
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 32
Reading Level: 12 and up (Barnes and Noble)
Summary: In this fun book, Horace, an elephant, invites his animal friends to a costume party to celebrate his eleventh birthday. Horace cooks up a delicious banquet but tells his friends that they will not be eating it until the eleventh hour. In the meantime, Horace has put together games and activities to entertain his guests. The animals go out and play all the games but when they come back in for the banquet all of the food has been eaten! Of course all of the guests deny any fault in the incident. Fortunately, Horace has the ingredients to make some sandwiches for his friends. He had also left the birthday cake in the kitchen, so the theif hadn't eaten it and the friends are able to enjoy it together. Base leaves clues throughout the book in the elaborate illustrations to help the reader find the culprit.
Who would you recommend this book to? I would recommend this book to observant kids who would enjoy looking for the clues. I also think it would be good mostly for kids who can read on their own already since the clues are written out.
Potential problems or conflicts: This book is pretty detailed and requires some good observation skills if the reader is not going to "cheat" (like I ended up doing) by looking in the back of the book to figure out the clues. It may frustrate kids if they have a hard time finding the clues or don't know what to look for.
My reaction: This book was a ton of fun! The author's notes in the back make it really interesting to go back and find new things in the illustrations over and over. The illustrations are so detailed and intricate that it makes it fun to read and solve the mystery over and over.
No comments:
Post a Comment