Reading Ranjit’s Rainbow Tigers beautifully conjures up the sights and sounds of an Indian bazaar but what is it about the author’s writing that helps us to build the picture in our mind’s eye?

Read Ranjit’s Rainbow Tigers to the class. Ask the children if they can imagine what the bazaar might be like. They may have experience of being in a market in their own towns. What sights, sounds and smells did they experience? (If you have a local market a visit might be just the thing to help children kick start their imaginations. Go armed with cameras, notepads and, if you have it, recording equipment.) How do they think the markets of the UK might differ from the bazaars of India? Has anyone visited a bazaar in India or another country?

Think about how an Indian bazaar might differ from a market in the UK, for example:

• Weather – The weather in India will be very hot.
• Food – What kind of food will be on sale? Talk about the food you might find on a market in the UK. Is the food the same in India?
• Other goods – What kind of clothes are sold? How are they different from the clothes we see in the UK?