A review by librarian09
The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base

5.0

I taught a class on Sherlock Holmes for our home school co-op and as an exercise in observation and deduction we studied this book in order for them to earn their Junior Sherlockian certificates from the Beacon Society. 24 kids in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade over 6 weeks. Amazing! They were dedicated to solving the crime without cheating and by solving the puzzles. I did give them some "data" to work with to aid them. Such as talking a bit about morse code, pig pen ciphers, hieroglyphics, and other things that I knew they would have to have some familiarity with in order to solve the puzzles. I did this prior to introducing the book so that they were aware these things existed and in order to trigger that memory when they saw something familiar in the text. I cannot praise this book highly enough. The class was a huge success and the kids (and their parents!) are eager for more Holmes. You cannot beat that!