Heroes and Gladiators

A tale of blood, honour and revenge. Lazar loves his homeland. When the Romans invade, he has no choice but to fight for his country. Lazar and the rest of the Macedonian army are quickly defeated. Those that live are taken as slaves. Lazar is forced to be a gladiator in the Ancona arena and his skill with a sword quickly makes him famous. But Lazar doesn't want to fight in the arena for the rest of his life. Will he ever have a chance to escape? Wow! Fiction follows on from Wow! Facts series and each book can be paired with a non-fiction counterpart on the same theme such as Exploring Space, Ancient Egypt or Fighter Planes. Some children may want to find out more about the topic and they can access a non-fiction book at the same level, providing an opportunity to experience different text types and formats. The titles in the WOW! Fiction series of Hi-Lo books for students aged 9+ include books for reading ages 611 years and utilise a range of dyslexia-friendly features to support pupils' reading. The titles in the Turquoise band have a reading age of 6 years and an interest age of up to 14 years. WOW! Fiction books are printed on off-white paper and incorporate an easy-to-read font and text separated into bite-sized chunks, along with carefully considered letter and paragraph spacing that can reduce visual stress. While these books have instantly appealing characters and gripping storylines, the language and sentence structure are intentionally written so that students who are reading behind their chronological age can succeed in reading them. The whole banded series offers progressively levelled books in Turquoise, Purple, Gold, White, Lime and Brown bands, with 5 books offering plenty of practice at each level to consolidate learning and develop fluency before moving on.