by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 10, 2010

Ann Jonas was 60 years old when she wrote and illustrated "The 13th Clue." But it seemed like she was creating a summary of her whole career with both its story and its style. Jonas is famous for "unorthodox formats," according to a review in Publisher's Weekly, and in this book, there's a different format on each page. Jonas draws her text into each picture - as the text of 13 mysterious clues!

"That's funny. The light just went on" reads a handwritten entry in a journal on the book's first page. And the next picture shows a cluttered attic with a sign taped to a piece of string that's dangling from a light.  ("Find more clues!" it reads, and the investigation begins.) On the next page there's two colorful power cords twisted into cursive letters. And those letters spell out "Go downstairs..."

What's fun about this book is the reader gets to play along. There is no narration, simply the text of the clues - and a picture of what you'd find if you followed them. At the bottom of the stairs there's just empty carpet - and some backwards letters on the glass of a door.  "won og tuo," the letters read, which a clever reader could deduce to be "Now go out."

Jonas draws the shadow of a girl, which provides her book with another ambiguous mystery. Whoever that girl is, she's obviously following all the clues. There's not an obvious word on the next page - just the girl's shadow on the brick sidewalk by the lawn. But it's seen from an overhead view, and the trampled grass is forming letters. And the drawings get even more wacky, since the next clue is written with letter-shaped clothes hanging from a clothesline!

"Now into the woods... " they spell, where the shadow-girl finds a rebus on the ground. The illustrations are simple but effective, since in some ways they're doubling as puzzles. The rebus translates roughly into "U (can) (knot) (pick) (flowers) u (can) (bag) a(corn)s" - and the clues begin getting trickier.  "Swims on" read the words drawn in algae on the lake's surface - but upside-down, it reads "No swims."

There's an anagram, and tall words on a cliff that can only be read if you tilt the page. But the story is also coming into focus. The girl's face appears in the reflection on the surface of the pond. And as her arm holds out a magnifying glass, the final clue appears in the letters on the top of dice.  There's a surprise waiting for the girl at the end of the trail, and the last page shows an update in the handwritten journal. "What a great day! They sure fooled me.

"That was the best birthday I ever had..."

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