The author does well to capture the villainy of some of the characters too: I definitely saw one of the characters as a Vernon Dursley type from HP and it was so easy to despise him! This was pretty intriguing for me and nicely finished up the threads of the storyline till the end. I am recommending it. The historical time period and the Georgian London setting are reflected really well by the atmosphere that prevails throughout and the meticulous attention to detail. The attention given to the study of antiquities and the descriptions of things such as Dora's jewellery, the objects at Blake's Emporium, and Lady Latimer's soiree, all help to give the story even more depth. We regularly review our levelling alongside the leading educational publishers to ensure that we are selecting books at the right text level. We consider a variety of elements including the vocabulary, sentence structure, the density of the text and narrative style. We also consider the knowledge that the reader is assumed to have, the emotional maturity needed to fully engage with the text and the complexity of the story as these features will impact fluency. When levelling books that have not been written to a prescribed level it is very difficult to work to a list of criteria but by careful comparison with scheme books and other ‘real’ books that have been levelled by educational publishers and by examining the texts alongside each other, it is possible to assess whether a text represents a good fit for a level or a step up or down in text level.

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.The book bands philosophy has not changed and at its heart is the opportunity it gives schools to use a mix of reading scheme and ‘real’ books from a range of publishers whilst maintaining a consistent and appropriate challenge for pupils. Using banded 'real' books, children are able to choose books freely from within a structured range of books making reading more independent and enjoyable.

This book is set in Georgian London, where Pandora “Dora” Blake is an aspiring jewellery designer who currently lives with her Uncle, Hezekiah, in what use to be her parents famous shop of antiquities. Since her parents deaths 12 years ago, Dora has seen the shop turn from fame and genuine artefacts, to the crooked and more questionable ways of her Uncle.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. Each month we receive sample copies and manuscripts from all the leading children’s publishers to review. We read all of the books that we find suitable for our collections and level the texts. It is only by reading the books that we can be sure that the text level is consistent and that the content is appropriate for a school library. It is at this point that we would weed out any books that include language that is inappropriate for the classroom; which contain themes or scenes that children reading at this age may have difficulty with; or which do not significantly meet our ideal criteria for primary school reading books. We are looking for books which are not only at the right text level but which also promote reading for pleasure, use language well or introduce interesting vocabulary and ensure that as many different styles, text types, themes and genre are included in each collection as possible to broaden children’s reading.