The Yowlers

by Stacy Lynn Carroll, Molly Ruttan (Illustrator)

Overview

Amazing things happen when the grouchiest family meets the nicest one!

The Yowler family is always in a monstrously bad mood: Papa grumbles, Mama yells, Sara and Sonya bicker, and the baby fusses day and night. They’re so used to being grumpy that when their new neighbors smile at them, the Yowlers are puzzled and are immediately suspicious. And when the new kids ask Sara and Sonya to play? Well, that’s just plain odd. Then again, it does feel good to be treated kindly . . . and all of a sudden the sisters start acting nicer themselves, causing Mama and Papa to wonder if they’re coming down with something. But as it turns out, even the smallest acts of kindness can be powerful. The niceness is contagious—and it’s spreading!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593109885
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/24/2024
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.88(w) x 10.81(h) x 0.32(d)
Lexile:	AD620L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Stacy Lynn Carroll (StacyLynnCarroll.com) has written several young adult and adult novels, and The Yowlers is her picture book debut. Stacy loves chocolate cake, Dr Pepper, corgi butts, and making up stories for the amusement of her children. She and her husband live in Utah with their five kids and a small zoo of pets.

Molly Ruttan (MollyRuttan.com) grew up making art and music in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and earned a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art. Molly now lives in the diverse and historic neighborhood of Echo Park in Los Angeles. Molly plays drums, sings in a community choir, and has recently dabbled in learning the viola. She also loves exploring all kinds of fine art and illustration mediums, including making her own animated book trailers. Her life is full of art, music, family, friends, and various pets and urban animals. Molly’s titles include The Stray and Something Wild, which she wrote and illustrated, and I Am a Thief! and Violet and the Crumbs: A Gluten-Free Adventure, both written by Abigail Rayner.

Editorial Reviews

Text full of alliteration and gentle humor. . . . A tool for social-emotional learning . . . clearly states its explicit message about kindness in terms kids will easily understand. Funny, action-filled illustrations reminiscent of Mercer Mayer’s work round out this lesson in positivity. . . . Upbeat antidote to grumpiness.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2024-06-15
Can kindness be catching?

The Yowler family consists of pointy-eared, sharp-toothed, horned monsters who are terminally glum. In fact, “at the Yowlers’ house, grumpiness [is] a way of life.” Text full of alliteration and gentle humor describes various mildly troublesome situations that arise. Whether the family is attempting to garden, clean up, or go shopping, things end with inevitable grumbling, brawling, shrieking—and messes. Until, that is, some brown-skinned human neighbors move in next door. Appropriately named the Nicelys, they’re friendly and helpful and do strange things with their teeth (readers will realize they’re smiling)—whatever can this mean? The Yowlers find themselves reconsidering their grumpy way of life and begin to display more positive traits, including resilience and consideration, and soon they’re even smiling. By the end of the story, their pointy ears, sharp teeth, and horns are a distant memory, and the Yowlers are depicted as light-skinned humans. As a tool for social-emotional learning, this somewhat didactic tale verges on oversimplification but clearly states its explicit message about kindness in terms kids will easily understand. Funny, action-filled illustrations reminiscent of Mercer Mayer’s work round out this lesson in positivity.

A preachy but upbeat antidote to grumpiness.(PIcture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews