Product Description
When May was little, she begged and pleaded for a dog. Now that she’s all grown up, she’s finally got him. Julian is a big-eared, high-spirited farm dog, whose job is to chase groundhogs out of the garden. In fact, Julian chases anything that moves, from cars to the neighbor’s horse. And he also chases May’s gentle black cat Victoria, and her kitten Ricky Rainbow, who scramble for safety whenever Julian appears. But one day Julian proves that he really is a good dog, a hero in fact, and May, Victoria, and Ricky Rainbow can really count him part of their family. ... Read more

Product Description
Every kid wants one, but few are as persistent and inventive about getting one – or a substitute for one – as little May. It seems to little May that everybody has a dog except her. She tries everything, even bringing one home, with no success. Then one day she accidentally discovers that a rollerskate can act like a dog, almost, so she works at acquiring the technical skill that will change it into one, almost. She leads it, walks it – at first timidly, then boldly – ties it up outside stores, takes it all the places a dog can go. In fact, she starts quite a fad on her street of rollerskate walking. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Enjoying the Process: I Want A Dog
You can't always get what you want, but if you try, try, try again you might enjoy yourself anyway. In a quiet explosion of colour, character and creativity, this book tells us how.

Roller Skate used as dog
May will do just about anything to get a dog, even practice with a roller skate.Check out her methods of persuading her parents to buy her the one thing she wants most of all, A DOG! As a teacher, I will be using thisbook to help my students learn the art of persuasion and turning this intoa writing piece to hopefully persuade their parents for that one specialthing.This is really a cute book that accurately portrays how a childwill go to great lengths to get what they want. ... Read more

Product Description
Julian, a high spirited farm dog, makes life very uncomfortable for the house cat, Victoria, until he helps save her lost kitten. ... Read more

Product Description
The grandma of this story is different. Not many grandmas teach their granddaughters how to play poker, or take train rides across the country, bathing in fresh orange juice. But this grandma is also not so different. Together grandma and granddaughter go to the movies, drink tea at a Chinese food restaurant, and see a vaudeville show that stars a beer-drinking hippo. Everyday they have lunch together, and grandma tells the story of her life. This is an off-beat, heartwarming tale narrated by a little girl whose grandmother is her best friend. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Extremely poignant for a children's book
I picked up the book in the library and began reading for the strange title...By the end I was just in tears at the wonderful story and reminded me of my grandma and my relationship with her.Great story that is entertaining for both adults and children, and hopefully will encourage children to cherish their time with their grandma.

Grandma didn't let any grass grow under her toes
This is a very sweet reminiscence of the author's immigrant grandma, who embraced life fully.She played poker with Dutch Schultz's gang while her plumber husband fixed their toilets.While she cared for the author as a child she passed along the wisdom she'd accumulated.Advice like "Never, ever go into the woods alone because the gypsies will get you or, should you escape that cruel fate, you'll fall down a hole." Or, "Just in case the Cossacks come to Queens, learn to say 'Da' and always keep plenty of borscht in the refrigerator." As a senior citizen she took the train from New York to California, where she could always find a poker game.When the author was old enough, she taught her to play poker as well. The author's illustrations of the way she imagined her grandmother's stories are a delight.Loving respect informs every page.The author was lucky to have such a grandma, and we are lucky to share her story.

Another Rom stereotype
One illustration in this otherwise innocent tale clearly depicts Gypsies as "wood people" who, the text says, will "take" children if they wander into the forest. It is unfortunate to see such blatant stereotyping --- in an age when the Romany (Gypsy) population of Eastern Europe is the target of more hate crime than at any time since the Holocaust. It's too bad that so many children's authors remain completely insensitive to the slavery and poverty suffered by the Rom. Discerning readers can help by avoiding books that include any kind of sterotyping.

---Alyssa A. Lappen ... Read more

Product Description
May is so excited to be going on her first family vacation to Florida. Everything is new and exciting: sleeping in a motel, buying postcards, playing miniature golf, and going sightseeing. Things would be perfect if her big brother Ricky wasn’t always turning everything into a contest – and worse, always winning. When May meets Ricky’s challenge to a “double dare,” he gains a new appreciation of his little sister, and the two have a much better vacation.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Memory Lane
Back in my hometown's small one room library, we had this book.It was one of the first books I checked out with my library card and I have loved ever since.The vivid illustrations is what gets me every time.The book was also a different way for me to learn about families.I was amazed that the family was going on a winter vacation to the beach. I've never heard of doing that in my small town life!

Now that I am a teacher, I want to get this book and have it in my library to pass on the colorful illustration and the story that took me on a fun road trip. ... Read more

Product Description
A delightful read-aloud book about a very small girl who won’t go to sleep. Everyone and everything go to sleep: her mother and father, the cat and the dog, her aunts and uncle, camels and flamingos, cowboys and clowns. Even the sheep she counts eventually go to sleep – but does she?

Now available in a bright and larger format, this enormously appealing book can be joyfully discovered by a whole new generation of readers. This new format is being published to celebrate Dayal Kaur Khalsa’s enormous contribution to the children’s book world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

great book - for young child on his way to bed
a book about people who sleeping - if it's in the living room couch or the bench on thepark - the amazing illustrating of khalsa will make you or your child fall asleep with a smile ! ... Read more

Product Description
Having to share a room with a brother or sister can make for hard feelings, and the siblings in this hilarious book are grumpy about their crowded room. At least it seems crowded until Green Cat shows up. He’s going to show us what a really crowded room can look like. By the time he piles in everything from a toaster to a giraffe, the amazed siblings are ready to admit that sharing a room is not so bad after all. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great rhyming prose, great illustrations

My 2yo loves this book; we've gotten it from the local library enough times he can recite large portions of it from memory.I live the whimsical, humorous nature of the prose and the detailed, intricate illustrations- even after the 3rd consecutive reading ("Again!" my son demands) it *still* makes me laugh.Highly recommended (and of course, it does seek to teach a valuable lesson).

Wonderful Book For Young Children
My five year old and I really enjoyed this book. It's a clever lesson in sharing.Not only is this nicely illustrated, but the words are easy enough for beginning readers.We've also liked this author's other books.

A memorable storybook lesson about sharing
Written and illustrated by Dayal Kaur Khalsa, Green Cat is a vividly colored picturebook featuring brightly colored, eye-catching artwork in a simplistic yet powerful modern style. The Story is about a brother and a sister who quarrel over having to share a room. Each thinks that the room is too crowded - until the Green Cat comes and shows them how crowded a room can really be! Enthusiastically recommended for family, school, and community library picturebook collections, Green Cat is an entertaining and memorable storybook lesson about sharing. ... Read more

Product Description
All little May ever wanted to be was a cowboy, for as long as she can remember. At the movies each Saturday, she studies how to be a cowboy, how to push her hat back and squint in the sun, or ambush something on her bike. All she needs is a horse, but her parents won’t even let her have a dog. So May builds her own horse from a blanket and a piece of clothesline on the basement banister. On her banister horse, she dreams of the world of cowboys, the open trail, and her favorite cowboy songs.
... Read more

Product Description
This is a charming and poignant tale of Elsie, a girl who lives alone in the woods. Praying for a companion, she is sent a cat made of snow and is told not to let it inside. Elsie plays with the cat and they quickly become friends, exploring the woods and marvelling at the wonders of the northern sky. But after parting for the night, Elsie is too lonely, so she lets the cat inside to lie by the fire. Sure enough, the snow cat melts, and in the morning Elsie discovers the water has run down a hill until it gathered to become a pond in the shape of a cat, where the girl plays all year long, and the pond sparkles “like a diamond in the sun.” ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Dayal Kaur Khalsa, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2256 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Product Description
An Italian visitor to Queens bemoans the unavailability of pizza until some thoughtful girls enable her to make some. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

How Pizza Came to Queens
This is a wonderful book that my children have enjoyed since they were much younger. The illustrations are colorful but the text is superb.

A very special little book.
A lot of qualities have to come together to make a childrenÕs picture book special. "How Pizza Came To Queens" has all of them.

The story is wonderful. It takes place at some unidentified time in the past (probably late 40s or early 50s), when an elderly Italian relative, Mrs. Pellegrino, pays a visit to Queens and is disappointed to discover thereÕs no pizza there Ð but she doesnÕt speak English well enough to explain what pizza is. The children she visits want to make her happy, so they do everything they can to find out what pizza is so they can get one for Mrs. Pellegrino. They finally find the answer in the library (using a dictionary and then a cookbook), and buy all the ingredients, thinking all the while that a PIE made with TOMATOES sounds disgusting. To say the least, they get a pleasant surprise.

ItÕs a funny and charming story, but itÕs a lot more than that, too. I think itÕs very important for children to learn to appreciate other cultures, and a book showing that their favorite food has not been in this country forever, but came over with immigrants, is a great way to help them see foreign cultures and people in a positive way. The children in the story are also great role models. The find Mrs. Pellegrino odd (her difficulty with English even makes her seem a little mean at first), but they are able to put asidetheir feelings and try to help her feel at home. And theyÕre rewarded for their kindness with their first taste of pizza Ð now thereÕs a reward most kids can appreciate.

A charming story and humane values make this book a gem. But the pictures make it even better. TheyÕre not conventionally pretty, but Dayal Kaur Khalso has a unique style based on vivid, sometimes startling colors that are eye-catching and quite beautiful.

Everything about "How Pizza Came To Queens" is delightful. I enjoy reading it and looking at the art work as much as my daughter does. ... Read more

Product Description
May, of My Family Vacation , is staying with her good friends Linda, Judy, and Peggy Penny while her parents are away. The Penny family is visited by a distant cousin, elderly Mrs. Pelligrini, who walks through the kitchen door, sniffs the air and immediately declares, "Is no good." The girls notice that the only time the elderly visitor is really happy is when she is cooking, and they all wonder about the mysterious "pizza" that Mrs. Pelligrini misses so much. "Maybe it's her daughter . . . " says one of the girls. "Or her dog," ventures another. When the girls learn, at the library, the meaning of the word pizza, they copy the list of ingredients and then go shopping. Mrs. Pelligrini, seeing the items the girls have assembled, flies into action, and soon the house is filled with the aroma of the bubbling, baking pie. This amusing story is embellished with Khalsa's intensely colored paintings in her vigorous primitive style, each one brimming with details of family life a few decades ago. The delicious-looking endpapers depict pizza pies falling from a beautiful blue sky. ... Read more