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The Quacken

Illustrated by Pablo Pino
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About The Book

Fans of The Bad Seed and Creepy Carrots will flock to this hilarious, lightly spooky picture book about a boy who unwittingly unleashes a ferociously fuzzy beast on his campground!

Lurking in the lake at Cucumonga Campground is a fearsome and frightening creature. Legend says that it swallows kids, canoes, and even whales whole. But all Hector sees are cute, cuddly, quacking ducks. Until he breaks the campground’s most important rule—Don’t Feed the Ducks—and releases…the Quacken.

About The Author

Sal Peretti

Justin Colón is a professional actor and children's book author. His previous picture books include The Quacken (illustrated by Pablo Pino) and Impossible Possums, (illustrated by James Rey Sanchez). A lover of Halloween and zombie movies, Justin is also a backyard beekeeper. Though his bees sometimes frighten the neighbors, they’ve never tried to eat their brains—something Justin takes great pride in. He lives in New York, but you can visit him at JustinColonBooks.com.

About The Illustrator

Pablo Pino was born in August 1981 in Buenos Aries, Argentina. He grew up watching cartoons, playing football, and drawing a lot. These days, he doesn’t watch as much TV and only plays football once a week, but still has the joy of painting every day because for the last ten years, he’s been working as a professional illustrator for different print media. What he enjoys the most is illustrating books for children and teenagers. In addition to illustrating almost fifty books, Pablo also does character designs and board games and collaborates on designs for schoolbooks and magazines with various worldwide publishing companies. He is self-taught and his illustrations are mostly computer drawn, but he always adds textures that he makes with pencils, crayons, acrylics, and pretty much any material that lets him gets messy like when he was child.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (July 16, 2024)
  • Length: 40 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781665922487
  • Ages: 4 - 8

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Raves and Reviews

Debut author Colón and Pino (Pumpkin Day at the Zoo) mix broad spoofs of horror tropes...with the silly extravagance and tight pacing of an 11-minute cartoon. And when a gag both comical and literal finally saves Hector, the story proves itself to be all in good fun, resulting in a lighthearted vibe that’s nothing to quack at.

– Publishers Weekly, 4/1/24

"Legend has it there’s a new campfire tale in town, one to thrill and delight generations for ages, and they call it…THE QUACKEN."

– Antwan Eady, award-winning author of Nigel and the Moon

"A fun, suspenseful story about a legendary creature who is equal parts eerie and entertaining."

– Jessie Sima, New York Times bestselling creator of Not Quite Narwhal

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