When Eric, a timid mallard, hears a fellow duck suggest the group of four duck friends go down to the lake, he is alarmed. After all, a monster lives under the water, and it will pull them under. The others laugh at him. They say only fish and frogs live underwater, but Eric is convinced of his doom despite their shouts of “Trust us!” But peer pressure is strong, and soon Eric is on the lake, swimming after the other three…until he is dragged underwater by a giant aqua creature. A monster. This monster, however, is friendly, and he shows Eric a dramatic seafloor paradise with a motel, a café, cars and boats, and a steel-drum-playing octopus. His friends suddenly notice Eric is missing. Perhaps he was right. Eric returns, though, and when his friends fly from the lake and its monster, he laughs at them and denies he saw anything.
Through its spare dialogue-heavy text and bright, fanciful illustrations, The Monster in the Lake celebrates the imagination. Young children will appreciate the expressiveness of the sea creatures, at first fishes and frogs and then the aqua(tic) monster and friends who have created a fun street scene that spans a giant fold-out spread. The unanticipated monster and its friends have smiling faces, sharp teeth, and amusing details that range from purses and umbrellas to straws, fans, and toys dragged behind them. And they raise a question for discussion with the little ones. Why does Eric not tell his friends what he has seen? Perhaps they don’t have the eyes to see what he has seen below the lake’s surface.
Written and illustrated by Leo Timmers
Translated from Dutch by Bill Nagelkerke
Gecko Press, 2025
ISBN 979-8-7656-7050-7
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Lyn Miller-Lachmann is the author of the YA historical novel Torch (Carolrhoda Lab, 2022), winner of the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature and a 2022 Booklist Editors’ Choice, and the YA verse novel Eyes Open (Carolrhoda Lab 2024), chosen by Booklist as a Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth, 2024. She wrote the picture book Ways to Play (Levine Querido, 2023), illustrated by Gabriel Alborozo, and co-authored with Zetta Elliott the middle grade verse novel Moonwalking (FSG, 2022). Her nonfiction includes a biography of Temple Grandin in the She Persisted chapter book series from Philomel and Film Makers: 15 Groundbreaking Women Directors (co-authored with Tanisia “Tee” Moore) from Chicago Review Press. She translates books for youth from Portuguese to English, including the 2023 YA graphic novel Pardalita by Joana Estrela, published by Levine Querido, which was named a Batchelder Honor Book in 2024 and the graphic novel Our Beautiful Darkness (Enchanted Lion), by the Angolan author Ondjaki, illustrated by António Jorge Gonçalves.
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