Famous Seaweed Soup is a retelling of The Little Red Hen with a twist. Sara and her family are having a family beach day. She wants to make her famous seaweed soup, but it seems no one wants to help her. She has to gather water, seaweed, smelly stuff and snails to add to her yellow pail. Meanwhile mom and dad set up the beach blanket and umbrella, make lunch and look after her little sister. Sara also finds other beach treasures during her day. Of course the soup looks and sounds quite disgusting and because no one helped, they all have to taste the soup. This is a cute story with fun illustrations. My one niggle is that Sara goes off by herself to gather all the items, and mom and dad don't appear to be watching her. My oldest grandchild made a comment about that, but the younger two didn't seem to notice. We did talk about safety and not wandering off by yourself and I told them that mom and dad were probably watching to make sure she was okay. I also want to say that the cover is not the best choice for the book. Sara looks distorted and the expression on her face is not the most appealing. The illustrations in the book are quite pleasant and that is not a good example.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review.

This is basically a modern retelling of The Little Red Hen, about a girl making seaweed soup while her family is at the beach. She spends all day asking her parents to help her gather the ingredients for the soup, but they are always busy with something else, so she has to do it all herself. But as this seaweed soup is not actually cooked, or particularly edible, instead of her keeping it all for herself since no one helped her, she decides that they must eat it, not her. I thought it was a cute twist.

The illustrations were colorful, perfectly showing the steps of making the famous seaweed soup. And I felt sorry for the little girl in the story every time her parents said they were busy with someone else when she was wanting to play with them (which is super hypocritical of me as a parent because I've definitely been busy with other things when my kids have wanted to play at times too). This is a story that I'd definitely be able to read a few times before I wanted to hide the book from my kids. Overall I give it 4.154 out of 5 stars.

A whimsical look at an independent kind of girl, as she and her family enjoy a day at the seaside. All the others have other things to do – well, her baby sister might not have much agency in that, but at least the story considers her at every beat – so she goes about her business herself. And that business is to make a soup of bay water, seaweed, stinky stuff and snails. The end pay-off I guess shows how light-hearted the piece is, but surely it would work better if the parents regretted not taking part – if they proved how horrid their penalty was, as opposed to making 'yum yum' noises, it would highlight the benefits to be had in being active, individual and creative. Still, what do I know – someone here, in this book allegedly from thirty years ago, is seen making a playlist on a mobile phone, which I doubt I was even aware of existing back then. Four stars are a little generous, but at least the book gets full marks re: sun-protection habits.

The Famous Seaweed Soup by Antoinette Truglio Martin, Illustrated by Penny Weber
In the book Famous Seaweed Soup, get ready for the sizzling summer day with Sara and her family at the beach. Beach day is fun, packing sun umbrellas, beach mats, beach toys but above all tasting Sara’s famous seaweed soup.

When on a beach day everyone has a task to accomplish. Mom must take care of sister; dad is busy setting up the beach day fun activities. And Sara, well she must prepare the best tasting seaweed soup ever. As she goes step by step to put up the great concoction, Sara seldom asks for help. However, she is turned down by mom, dad, and Hallie thus Sara ultimately makes the great creation herself.

Author Antoinette Martin with her use of precise verbiage, and description invokes the senses and transports the readers to the beach. The sight, sounds, taste depicted in the book helps imbibe the beauty of the beach in every shape and form.

The book inspires the readers to observe and look around for nature in its various forms when at the beach. The lively vivid illustrations open the scene right in front of the readers.

This is a cute story about a girl who’s parents are too busy with common reasons breed by children, forcing the girl to make her seaweed soup independently. In the end she is proud of her independent work, which is a nice lesson for kids.

We just came back from a trip to the beach so this book hit home in the best ways. My daughters are two and four and really saw themselves in the two main characters and her journey to make her "famous seaweed soup." In this modern retelling of Henny Penny, this little girl is wanting her family to play with her as she becomes more and more exasperated that she has to do everything on her own to make this soup (even though her family is just enjoying their beach day as well). It was so fun to read and watch my daughter catch on to the rhythm of one of her favorite stories told again. The illustrations are beautiful and I always love seeing more representation of families in books we read. I'm definitely going to order this book when it comes out to donate to her school.

Highly recommend!

I am not really sure how I feel about this book.
On the one hand, it is a beautiful work of art. The drawings are exquisite and beautiful. The drawings really make the story come alive.
On another hand, it is a story of a girl playing alone at the beach all while the rest of her family is just… ignoring her. Yes, she has fun doing things on her own. Yes, she has fun. Yes, nothing bad happens to her. Yes, it is a nice story. But what I see there are her parents telling her all the time that they are too busy to do anything with her – one is always busy with the baby, and another one is busy entertaining themselves, be it on the phone (yes, way too much attention is paid to the phone), be it a book.
Then again, all this aside, this beautifully illustrated book has lots of words that a young learner might learn from this book.
Overall, I honestly do not know how I feel about it. The illustrations are perfect. The vocabulary-building potential is noteworthy. But the little girl being ignored, and the phone screen being preferred over time spent with her? I don’t know, really. I would not want any young child learning that this is the way things should be done, that this is the norm out there, and that phone screens are more important than spending time with them.

This was a cute, simple book about Sara's day at the beach. I like the fact that Sara was able to make her own games, and create something that students could recreate on their own on a trip to the beach. This would be a fun classroom read as we approach summer.

When Sara accompanies her family to the beach, she decides to make seaweed soup in a little yellow bucket. But since her parents and baby sister are all busy, she must go solo. In this endearing picture book, Sara’s independent process yields two types of seaweed, 22 types of snails, and a host of other beach items. No wonder her family raves about the most delicious soup ever! Famous indeed.

While the text by author Martin is loads of fun for young readers, the detailed colorful illustrations are equally awesome. Since I have a fondness for fabric, I particularly love the creative beach designs worn by each family member, illustrated by the talented Penny Weber.

Sara and her family are spending the day at the beach and she has big plans to make her Famous Seaweed Soup. Just like the Little Red Hen, Sara finds that no one has time to help her with gathering all the ingredients and mixing them up in her pail. It is amazing how many things her parents find to do instead of working with her. Whether it is feeding baby Hallie, making sandwiches, finding the beach playlist, chatting with a friend - Mom and Dad are too busy to join Sara in her project (and Hallie is no help since she is a baby busy tasting her own toes or putting sand in her mouth). But when it is time to eat the soup, Sara gets the last laugh by declaring that they all must taste it.

This story mimics the plot of the Little Red Hen, but updates it with an interracial family visiting the seashore. Children will have fun naming off the ingredients - water, seaweed, snails, a crab, and other items found on the beach. If they have enjoyed ocean visits of their own, this will remind them of treasures they have picked up on the sand. If they have not made it to the beach yet, then they may wish to do more investigating and find out about sea snails, gulls, or horseshoe crabs. Either way it is a perfect book to share as families begin to look toward summer vacation with their preschool or primary school kids.

This is a cute story and I appreciate the updates to it.
I thought the rhythm was nice, and it would be a nice book to share and ready together.
I don't love the illustrations, but they're fine.

What a sweet story. I'm a prek teacher and you could use this story during our family theme. Or as a compare and contrast to the story The Little Red Hen. We do have a sea animals theme, but there wasn't any sea animals.

The illustrations and the story was sweet.

It's a fun read with lovely illustrations that make me want to go on a beach vacation, and I like Sara who does whatever she wants without the assistance of others.

The illustrations in this book were fabulous. What a great summer read about the beach and being able to do things on your own!

Cute book. Entertaining, and the illustrations were pretty. I thought maybe it was a little long ended on some pages so probably better for older aged kids looking at picture books.

A very cute book about a family trip to the beach. Much like The Little Red Hen, she wants to make a meal, but no one will help her. A very cute book children will love!

This was such a fun book for my 2 year old and I to read together! She really loves the beach so that was a great topic to interest her. I loved the twist on the classic "Little Red Hen" story that I read as a kid! The illustrations are beautiful and really make you feel like you're on the beach enjoying the sunshine!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Sara doesn’t need anyone’s help!!! She did it all herself! This was such a cute book and I loved Sara and her cute little sister! The illustrations were perfection!!!

I really enjoyed reading this picture book. I would definitely use this in my classroom with my early elementary students. Sara has a ood attitude and she perseveres in her soup making even though everyone around her is very busy. I like the use of descriptive text and the illustrations would be very helpful for early readers. I can also discuss Sara's attitude and how inventive she's. She has good self confidence which is important to teach young learners. Great job. I look forward to more books by this author.

Omg this is so cute!

I do not like the “no” help dialogues from the other adult characters but it’s all in good faith.

A little family outing to the beach and this happens. Love it.

The illustrations are beautiful. However, the cover could be so much better.

Thank you, Purple Butterfly Press, for the advance reading copy.