Meera Sriram Books

This is a great book to read aloud to an Early Years or Key Stage 1 class. It follows a simple pattern that follows a little girl through an Indian market, looking for a present for her Amma (mother). The bright and vibrant illustrations by Mariona Cabassa are a feast for the eyes and provide lots of opportunity to talk about the details of the market stalls, the range of people, animals in the illustration backgrounds. Each page features a different market stall which has its own distinctive colourful illustration and is accompanied by helpful repeated words – ‘shoo-shoo’ or ‘yum-yum’ or ‘sniff-sniff’. This enables children to join in and perhaps act out each page. The language used to describe each item in the market provides a springboard for children’s own language development and writing. This book could inspire art work as well as providing discussion points about markets children have visited, markets around the world (with a helpful guide at the back of the book) as well as an opportunity to find out more about Indian markets specifically.