About the Book
Discover an immersive, sound-driven story with Sounds of America! The lyrical, sensory-rich narrative invites young readers to experience America through sound, capturing the excitement, wonder, and emotional depth of immigration in a vivid and memorable way.
Paulie's journey from Italy to New York celebrates family, belonging, resilience, and identity, offering a timely and relatable story that resonates across cultures and generations.
Written by Jennifer Payne, an experienced educator who focuses on building confidence in young learners, and illustrated by Babi Wrobel, an internationally acclaimed artist, the book combines emotional authenticity with vibrant, engaging visuals suited for both classrooms and home libraries.
For Grown-Ups
The concepts activated for readers using Paulie’s sound model are foundational and transferrable. Please visit @jenniferpayneauthor on Instagram and access the Level Up: Victorious Reading video series, where you'll find instructions and support for teaching your kids to read at home easily, efficiently, and effectively! Enjoy the journey!
About the Author
Jennifer Payne is a veteran teacher with 25 years of experience supporting students in the classroom and through Victory Garden Kids, the academic resource center she co-founded with her husband in 2015 to provide personalized learning strategies and support for families. Her primary focus with her students and in her writing is to help kids feel confident in themselves as capable, powerful learners. Jennifer holds a Masters in Secondary Education and a Masters in Educational Administration with Principal’s Credential, both from Grand Canyon University, and she is currently pursuing her PhD in Literacy from St. John’s University.
She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Jeff, and enjoys sailing on their boat, Baciami, which means “kiss me” in Italian. She loves to cook for her grown-up kids and loves being a Mimi to her grandchildren more than all the pasta in Italy.
About the Illustrator
Babi Wrobel is an artist, illustrator, author, and art teacher based in Rio de Janeiro.
She has illustrated more than 30 children's books over her 20-year career, two of them as both author and illustrator. She has a degree in Illustration from the Pratt Institute in New York and in Graphic Design from PUC in Rio de Janeiro.
Her work has been featured in various media across multiple industries such as advertising, fashion, publishing, and magazines, among others, eventually focusing her work on children’s books.
In 2013, together with her father, she wrote the book Everybody has left, published by Escrita Fina and distributed to public libraries across Brazil. In 2023, she published her second book as an author, Dona Gê: a Leucophaea Maderae, which tells the story of a cockroach that got tired of life in the dark and ran away to live in the daylight of the busy city.