Famous Seaweed Soup
Written by Antoinette Truglio Martin
Illustrated by Penny Weber
Ages 5+ | 32 Pages
Publisher: Purple Butterfly Press | ISBN-13: 9781955119405
Publisher’s Book Summary: Beach days are the best days and Sara loves everything about the beach. Her favorite part is making her Famous Seaweed Soup. Collecting all the ingredients is a tough job but Sara thinks she’s up to the task!
Can she make it all by herself or will a busy family foil her recipe?
Available for purchase on Amazon, Bookshop, and Barnes and Noble.
Written by Antoinette Truglio Martin
Illustrated by Penny Weber
Ages 5+ | 32 Pages
Publisher: Purple Butterfly Press | ISBN-13: 9781955119405
Publisher’s Book Summary: Beach days are the best days and Sara loves everything about the beach. Her favorite part is making her Famous Seaweed Soup. Collecting all the ingredients is a tough job but Sara thinks she’s up to the task!
Can she make it all by herself or will a busy family foil her recipe?
Available for purchase on Amazon, Bookshop, and Barnes and Noble.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Antoinette Truglio Martin is a retired speech therapist and special ed teacher, who now enjoys life as an author and nonny. She finds wonder in children’s play and captures the magic with her stories. Antoinette lives in her hometown, Sayville, New York, where she writes and plays on the Long Island seashore with her beach-loving family and friends.
For more information, visit: https://antoinettetrugliomartin.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AntoinetteTruglioMartin2017/
https://www.instagram.com/storiesserved/
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Life Is What It's Called - Why did you decide to write Famous Seaweed Soup?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - It all began with playing on the beach. Famous Seaweed Soup was born from scribbled observations in my journal while my child played. I had always been writing. I took a slice of time watching my daughter, Sara, play on the beach, and created a charming story. For weeks, Sara and I recited the story lines while commuting to daycare/work and laughed at the smelly parts. It was so much fun writing the story, “testing” it out on my daughter and later with my preschool students. Sara drew pictures. I had other stories ready to submit, but I felt so strongly about Famous Seaweed Soup. It should be a real storybook for kids to love as much as Sara and I love the story. So I pushed it ahead and here we are!
Life Is What It's Called - What will readers like most about Famous Seaweed Soup?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Young readers will first like the silly icky things, like tasting toes, the slimy seaweed, and snails that ooze their bodies out of their shells. They will enjoy Sara, a character who knows what she wants to do and is determined to do it even if she has to do it by herself. Stories that tap a playful and independent spirit are appealing to readers and listeners of all ages.
The beach is also a big draw. I don't know anyone who does not at least like the beach. All kinds of natural discoveries and surprises are found on the shores. Readers will recognize their familiar beach treasures and perhaps learn new ones.
Life Is What It's Called - What makes your book stand apart from what's on the market?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Famous Seaweed Soup can shine over the crowded market. The story tells a story in a compelling and relatable way. Repetitive lines act as a refrain from a song everyone knows. The predictable sentences encourage young readers to read and hear the story again. I consciously worked the story so that each word carried meaning. The language is not bogged down with unnecessary phrases and details.
The illustrations also set Famous Seaweed Soup apart from the crowded market. Penny Weber's style captures beautiful facial expressions and body postures. The shrugs, the wonder in the eyes are authentic. You cannot help but smile at them. Although computer generated pictures have their place in children’s books, this story needed the personalities and settings illustrated in this artful style.
Life Is What It's Called - How has your background helped you to develop this book?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Write what you know is the writer’s mantra. I know my home.
I grew up on the south shore of Long Island where the Great South Bay, Fire Island
Beaches and the Atlantic Ocean are within sight. I managed a boat before learning to ride a bicycle. The beaches and the sea remain part of my writing palate. My career as a speech therapist and special educator also shape what and how I write. I spent most of my forty-plus years treating young children and their families in Early Intervention programs. Acquisition of language and play were the primary goals. From modeling and scaffolding skills, I witnessed how amazing language develops. I appreciate the fine nuances of language and play development. The author's trick was to craft stories that respects readers’ and listeners’ developmental process and challenges the next step.
I believe Famous Seaweed Soup achieves a great combination depicting my love for the shore and the sea and celebrating play in a story that is developmentally appropriate for readers and listeners.
Life Is What It's Called - How are reading and speech development connected?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Reading and speech and language development are interconnected. It is a magical phenomenon. Reading is a skill built upon language, speech and cognitive development. Language acquisition, including expressive speech, develops before reading happens. Reading development encompasses more than recognizing letters, symbols or signs. There are specific readiness markers that must be met before reading is ready to emerge. Auditory and visual attention, memory, and integration are the foundations. One must be able to sequence the symbols, and process the sequence
into words, phrases and sentences. Then there are the sensory and motor components to master—ocular tracking, proprioception, and motor planning for speech responses. The brain must coordinate, practice, and remember millions of codes and responses. When a pre-reader wants a story, the body calms and (hopefully) remains focused. It is quite magical.
Antoinette Truglio Martin - It all began with playing on the beach. Famous Seaweed Soup was born from scribbled observations in my journal while my child played. I had always been writing. I took a slice of time watching my daughter, Sara, play on the beach, and created a charming story. For weeks, Sara and I recited the story lines while commuting to daycare/work and laughed at the smelly parts. It was so much fun writing the story, “testing” it out on my daughter and later with my preschool students. Sara drew pictures. I had other stories ready to submit, but I felt so strongly about Famous Seaweed Soup. It should be a real storybook for kids to love as much as Sara and I love the story. So I pushed it ahead and here we are!
Life Is What It's Called - What will readers like most about Famous Seaweed Soup?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Young readers will first like the silly icky things, like tasting toes, the slimy seaweed, and snails that ooze their bodies out of their shells. They will enjoy Sara, a character who knows what she wants to do and is determined to do it even if she has to do it by herself. Stories that tap a playful and independent spirit are appealing to readers and listeners of all ages.
The beach is also a big draw. I don't know anyone who does not at least like the beach. All kinds of natural discoveries and surprises are found on the shores. Readers will recognize their familiar beach treasures and perhaps learn new ones.
Life Is What It's Called - What makes your book stand apart from what's on the market?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Famous Seaweed Soup can shine over the crowded market. The story tells a story in a compelling and relatable way. Repetitive lines act as a refrain from a song everyone knows. The predictable sentences encourage young readers to read and hear the story again. I consciously worked the story so that each word carried meaning. The language is not bogged down with unnecessary phrases and details.
The illustrations also set Famous Seaweed Soup apart from the crowded market. Penny Weber's style captures beautiful facial expressions and body postures. The shrugs, the wonder in the eyes are authentic. You cannot help but smile at them. Although computer generated pictures have their place in children’s books, this story needed the personalities and settings illustrated in this artful style.
Life Is What It's Called - How has your background helped you to develop this book?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Write what you know is the writer’s mantra. I know my home.
I grew up on the south shore of Long Island where the Great South Bay, Fire Island
Beaches and the Atlantic Ocean are within sight. I managed a boat before learning to ride a bicycle. The beaches and the sea remain part of my writing palate. My career as a speech therapist and special educator also shape what and how I write. I spent most of my forty-plus years treating young children and their families in Early Intervention programs. Acquisition of language and play were the primary goals. From modeling and scaffolding skills, I witnessed how amazing language develops. I appreciate the fine nuances of language and play development. The author's trick was to craft stories that respects readers’ and listeners’ developmental process and challenges the next step.
I believe Famous Seaweed Soup achieves a great combination depicting my love for the shore and the sea and celebrating play in a story that is developmentally appropriate for readers and listeners.
Life Is What It's Called - How are reading and speech development connected?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Reading and speech and language development are interconnected. It is a magical phenomenon. Reading is a skill built upon language, speech and cognitive development. Language acquisition, including expressive speech, develops before reading happens. Reading development encompasses more than recognizing letters, symbols or signs. There are specific readiness markers that must be met before reading is ready to emerge. Auditory and visual attention, memory, and integration are the foundations. One must be able to sequence the symbols, and process the sequence
into words, phrases and sentences. Then there are the sensory and motor components to master—ocular tracking, proprioception, and motor planning for speech responses. The brain must coordinate, practice, and remember millions of codes and responses. When a pre-reader wants a story, the body calms and (hopefully) remains focused. It is quite magical.
Life Is What It's Called - How would your book help speech therapists, schools, parents,
readers/listeners?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Famous Seaweed Soup is a must have in classroom, school, and community libraries and home bookshelves. The illustrations engage attention, the repetitive text invites listener participation, and the underlying story structure fosters pragmatic language (facial reading, emotion identifications), short-term memory, and inferential observations. The story is fun and the illustrations are beautiful. Famous Seaweed Soup is the complete package for home, school, speech therapy, and reading intervention settings.
Life Is What It's Called - How will
Famous Seaweed Soup help children develop their "s" words?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Famous Seaweed Soup is well suited for phonemic awareness activities. As the student listens to the story, instruct the student to identify words with /s/ sounds, (or any other target sound) and where the sound is positioned in the word. As students' proficiency improves, Famous Seaweed Soup would serve as a read aloud to assess the student’s carryover as he/she reads the story. The pages where all the beach finds are listed would be a wonderful challenge.
Life Is What It's Called - What activities would go along with reading Famous Seaweed Soup?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - So glad you asked! After the story is read, close the book and ask the children to name the items Sara found on the beach. Can you name the items in story order? Look at the facial expressions. Can the children identify how the characters are feeling? Don’t forget to look at the seagull. Play the memory game (similar to “We’re going on a picnic…”) "We are going to the beach and I will bring...”. Each player repeats the growing list and names a new item to bring to the beach. How many items can you remember in sequence? Can you do this game in alphabetical order? Take a sand pail on a beach walk. Collect shells, crab parts, seagull feathers. Perhaps you will find beach glass. Sort and compare your treasures to Sara's finds. How many are the same/different? Make a Venn diagram on a whiteboard or class easel. Compare and contrast setting, character, plot between Famous Seaweed Soup and Little Red Hen.
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Famous Seaweed Soup is a must have in classroom, school, and community libraries and home bookshelves. The illustrations engage attention, the repetitive text invites listener participation, and the underlying story structure fosters pragmatic language (facial reading, emotion identifications), short-term memory, and inferential observations. The story is fun and the illustrations are beautiful. Famous Seaweed Soup is the complete package for home, school, speech therapy, and reading intervention settings.
Life Is What It's Called - How will
Antoinette Truglio Martin - Famous Seaweed Soup is well suited for phonemic awareness activities. As the student listens to the story, instruct the student to identify words with /s/ sounds, (or any other target sound) and where the sound is positioned in the word. As students' proficiency improves, Famous Seaweed Soup would serve as a read aloud to assess the student’s carryover as he/she reads the story. The pages where all the beach finds are listed would be a wonderful challenge.
Life Is What It's Called - What activities would go along with reading Famous Seaweed Soup?
Antoinette Truglio Martin - So glad you asked! After the story is read, close the book and ask the children to name the items Sara found on the beach. Can you name the items in story order? Look at the facial expressions. Can the children identify how the characters are feeling? Don’t forget to look at the seagull. Play the memory game (similar to “We’re going on a picnic…”) "We are going to the beach and I will bring...”. Each player repeats the growing list and names a new item to bring to the beach. How many items can you remember in sequence? Can you do this game in alphabetical order? Take a sand pail on a beach walk. Collect shells, crab parts, seagull feathers. Perhaps you will find beach glass. Sort and compare your treasures to Sara's finds. How many are the same/different? Make a Venn diagram on a whiteboard or class easel. Compare and contrast setting, character, plot between Famous Seaweed Soup and Little Red Hen.
I have other printable activities available on my website.
Enter for the chance to win a 30-book classroom set of Famous Seaweed Soup!
One (1) grand prize winner receives:
- A 30-book classroom set of Famous Seaweed Soup
Five (5) winners receive:
- A paperback copy of Famous Seaweed Soup
Famous Seaweed Soup Book Giveaway
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Purple Butterfly Press.
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