The Emerald Casket

July 1, 2011
Recently minted kid billionaire Gerald Wilkins (The Billionaire's Curse) knows that his legacy includes secrecy and danger. Now he learns new information that sends him to India on a search for one of three powerful caskets. This installment has plenty of action, and it spends enough time on characters' relationships to make readers care about the story's outcome.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

April 1, 2011
Grades 4-6 Gerald Wilkins, an Australian kid billionaire, finds himself inadvertently hunting another ancient relic with his sleuthing friends, twins Ruby and Sam, in the second installment of the Archer Legacy series. While learning more about his family and their long-held secrets, Gerald, who has barely acclimated to his inherited wealth in England, accepts an invitation to visit the gem-collecting Gupta family in India. Marketplaces, temples, old forts, and tombs provide lots of places to get into and out of tight spots and fight off a bevy of villains, who are also intent on finding the titular casket. A fun romp for action-loving readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2011

Gr 3-6-This old-fashioned adventure series continues along in its Biedermeyer-esque fashion, with many unlikely coincidences and melodramatic danger. The world's youngest billionaire, Gerald Wilkins; twins Ruby and Sam; and Indian femme fatale Alisha are on the hunt for a mysterious casket with supernatural powers. Evil Sir Mason Green, along with his murderous henchman, "the thin man," uses the children to try to steal this casket once they find it just as he did in The Billionaire's Curse (HarperCollins, 2010). They all head to India in search of a death cult that curiously shares the same symbology as Gerald's family crest. Character development is nil; new characters are introduced only to become stock figures so often found in this type of adventure, and the story is entirely plot driven. Some Australian slang will be unfamiliar to American readers.-B. Allison Gray, Goleta Public Library, CA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2011
They may have (apparently) lost round one in trilogy opener Billionaire's Curse (2010), but 13-year-old Gerald and his squabbling twin sidekicks Sam and Ruby aren't giving up. Here they get a taste of the luxury an estate worth �20 billion brings while jetting off to India in high style to claim a second magical artifact before (presumed) murderer and all-around bad guy Mason Green can reach it. Laying broad hints that All Is Not as It Seems--or, as several characters repeatedly whisper, "Nothing is certain."--Newsome again crafts a lighter-than-air caper. It's all heavily dependent on contrived clues, blundering or oblivious adults, chaperones who consistently vanish just before attackers arrive, conveniently spotty communications, lurid visions and massive gems that evidently sit around for the taking. The pace never lets up, though, and along with learning a bit more about the 1,600-year-long secret that Gerald's family has been charged with keeping, the young folk survive multiple kidnappings, escapes, chases and life-threatening mishaps. Inevitably they face off with Green again, here inside an ancient Indian temple prone to sudden massive floods. Fans of 39 Clues-style adventures will be swept along. (illustrations not seen) (Adventure. 11-14)

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