Sunday morning stuff

I mentioned last week that I might order Animalia to keep my four year old occupied on a flight - and was wondering about The Eleventh Hour, also by Graeme Base. Actually, its been on my mind for a while - look-and-find books are very popular on this house. My kids like finding things and I like seeing them absorbed in a book. I often end up looking too, though(It took me ages to find the colouring pencils in the Louvre in Adele and Simon!)

 Anyways, I found this copy in a local charity shop on Friday. For one euro! I was VERY happy. We read it that evening and my four, nine and eleven year sons were immediately immersed.

Its a mystery - eleven animals are invited to a birthday party and at some point during the day, one of them scoffs the feast. Who was it? My boys peered at the illustrations for ages and ages finding clues and red herrings. They held it in front of a mirror to decipher messages and one of them begged and begged me to let him look at the answer to the mystery at the back of the book. (The answer was no. They had to think and look for at least twenty four hours before peeking.) Still, they LOVED it.

This is a thirty two page picture book but definitely for the older picture book set. There is loads and loads to find in each illustration. Having said that my youngest really enjoyed it, partly though because of the curiosity and enthusiasm of his brothers. A wonderful book and ideal, as its setting is a birthday party, as a birthday present. For ages six to adult.

In other news...my nine year old is loving this:

and I couldn't put this down.

And this is what I keep leaving on everyones bedside tables. No takers yet, but I will persist.