Overview and Outcomes:

This is a 15-session Literary Leaf for Tamarind and the Star of Ishta by Jasbinder Bilan which covers all aspects of the Lower Key Stage 2 content domains.  Children will begin by considering the setting for the story and exploring the similarities and differences between the UK and India as presented in the text.  Throughout, there will be plentiful opportunities for children to answer retrieval and inference questions presented in different formats, as well as defining new vocabulary in context, predicting, sequencing and summarising.  The series of lessons culminates in children considering the significance of various items in the story.

Synopsis of Text:

Tamarind never knew her Indian mum, Chinty, who died soon after she was born. So, when she arrives at her ancestral home, a huge mansion in the Himalayas surrounded by luxuriant gardens, she's full of questions for her extended family. But instead of answers, she finds an ominous silence - and a trickle of intriguing clues: an abandoned hut, a friendly monkey, a glowing star ring, and a strange girl in the garden who calls herself Ishta. Slowly, Tamarind unravels a mystery at the heart of who she is...

Links to Curriculum areas, other Literary Leaves and Planning Sequences:

Cinnamon (Y4 planning sequence in the Literary Curriculum) would be an ideal text to teach this alongside.