Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Annelie Geissler
Categories
Children’s picture books

THE YOWLERS

Stacy Lynn Carroll Molly Ruttan

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! 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 pet 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.

Available products
Book Published 2024-09-24 by Nancy Paulsen Books

Comments

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, shriekingand 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.Funny, action-filled illustrations reminiscent of Mercer Mayer's work round out this lesson in positivity.[An] upbeat antidote to grumpiness.

The Yowlers, a monster family in a neighborhood of humans, are known to be unpleasant, argumentative, rude, and noisyand they're immediately suspicious of the Nicely family that moves in next door. When the Nicely sons try to pass a soccer ball to the Yowler girls, the girls don't understand their intentions ("Maybe it rolled in dog poop"), but playing with the boys turns out to be fun, and later the girls try to model their behavior after the new kids, choosing helpfulness instead of tantrums. The parents are leery of the personality change, but the neighbors' plate of freshly baked cookies and offer to mow their lawn inspire the Yowlers to do things for each other rather than argue. Ruttan's monsters, with their soft charcoal outlines, horned heads, and sharp-toothed goofy expressions, would fit in adorably with the cast of Monsters Inc. The Yowlers' misinterpretation of basic neighborly kindness is continual fodder for humor ("The new family was doing something weird with their teeth") and the wordplay would make for a fun read-aloud experience ("Mama Yowler didn't shop, she shrieked," and Papa Yowler "didn't clean, he clamored").there are plenty of goofy antics to keep little ones entertained by the Yowlers.