There is a sudden sigh, a hum, a fluttering. It comes not from behind but in front of her, from within the vase, and Dora hears all at once its siren call, its darkling plea. It is the hush of wind, the whisper of waves, the music of grief, and she cannot help it, she cannot resist. Dora lifts the lid.” But when they discover the secrets about the case, Dora’s entire life turns upside down. Anything she knows about her life, her past, her family is questionable! It seems like some things should be buried forever!

I really enjoyed this especially that it was set during the Georgian period which is fast becoming one of my favorite eras. Overall: I loved the historical setting, the intriguing mystery, lovely romance, riveting pacing! One of the greatest historical functions I’ve read lately! Banded books ultimately provide children with a pathway of progression in reading but also support teachers who are making book-buying decisions to meet the needs of individual pupils, bringing variety and breadth to children’s reading diets. Our team has many years of experience levelling ‘real’ books — when we talk about ‘real’ books, we mean books that have not been developed specifically for a reading scheme and have been written for the pure enjoyment of reading. Reading scheme books are written to exacting levels but the value of ascribing book bands to books written freely by exciting authors to absorb and captivate readers has been appreciated by our schools for 15 years. It is primarily a historical fiction, but with rather enticing elements of Greek mythology that give it that little bit of extra intrigue. These transpire to be more akin to magical realism than fantasy and along with the double meaning of the title, bring a lot of promise that something mesmerising awaits at the end. There is certainly lots to enjoy, only the mythology merely exists within the narrative rather than being the thing around which it is based.I could keep going on but this book just had everything: it had the mystery, the atmosphere, the intrigue and just the right amount of romance. I enjoyed the history and myth telling, and the talk of “curses”.

Meanwhile, Edward Lawrence is a bookbinder with a passion for material culture, determined to overcome his less than privileged upbringing to gain acceptance into the prestigious Society for Antiquaries. In a coffee house one afternoon, he is approached by a mysterious old man who directs him to Blake's Emporium to speak to Dora, explaining that she might be able to help him in his endeavours. We read all our books, have a strong understanding of how children develop as readers and have an unparalleled knowledge of children’s publishing to draw upon to meet their needs. For all our levelling we are constantly reading, comparing and contrasting our 'real' books with scheme books and with each other to ensure that they represent a true progression in reading and in our range. It is a team effort and we regularly discuss which features we feel push a book up or down a band, perhaps the vocabulary is representative of Dark Blue but the narrative complex enough to make a book really only accessible to the most confident readers in Year 5 reading at Dark Red. We take into account many factors depending upon the text; perhaps the reader would be required to have unexpected knowledge or insight to fully access the language or the narrative; and themes, like time travel, or devices, like parallel narratives, can render a book inaccessible to all but the most fluent reader; perhaps the text level is just right but the story unlikely to engage readers reading at this level. With each book we are asking would a child reading at that level be able to access this text and what would their challenges be, the answers to these questions are unique to each book. Choosing Book Bands for confident and gifted readers Pandora” is a historical fiction gem, the debut novel by author Susan Stokes-Chapman. Set in London in 1799, Chapman’s novel manages to merge Greek mythology and Georgian England in a creative and realistic way. The story is told from three POV’s; Dora, Edward (a historian with a passion for antiquities and Dora’s love interest) and Hezekiah himself. I loved how Chapman brought all three characters alternatively into the limelight, as it served to deepen the plot and character development. Fast forward and books bands these days are the most common system used by schools and by educational publishers of reading books, thus giving teachers a means of assessing children’s progress in reading in the absence of National Curriculum levels since 2014. As a result of the move away from NC levels, the book bands originally outlined by the UK Reading Recovery National Network and its authors for KS1 only, have extended to meet demands by a great many schools for further levels including up to the end of KS2. Thus providing an opportunity for assessment and progression right through the primary years. Some secondary schools are now using book bands to support and monitor progress for students who require additional support in their reading. What are the Book Band Colours?One thing I will say is that the author has left me with some interesting questions that I need answering! Steeped in mystery and rich in imagination, an exhilarating historical novel set in Georgian London where the discovery of a mysterious ancient Greek vase sets in motion conspiracies, revelations, and romance.

For confident and super-confident readers it is important that books are matched appropriately to their emotional maturity. For thisreasonPandora Books collate specific book collections for confident readerswhereextraemphasis is put on the contentbeingabsolutely spot on and not inappropriate for their chronological age whilst the book band level is higher. Hezekiah comes across as brutish for the most part and is generally a very unpleasant person, but he is also quite scheming and becomes more dangerous as the story goes on. His maid Lottie is a similarly unlikable character to begin with, but she is given an excellent arc and is more or less fully redeemed by the end.

Then the pithos comes into play, and I am desperate to see this in a film. The descriptions in the book just scream 'stunning' and I am certain my imagination comes nowhere near its beauty. There’s a small part of me that was uncomfortable reading about the colonial aspects of plundering and acquisition even though that was historically correct. I hate element of British history, our museums are still full of antiquities that are not ‘ours’. Pandora was such an all consuming read. I loved how it brought Georgian England together with Greek mythology. The result was a stunning story, with clever characters, ones to really invest in and some to revile.