The Emerald Casket

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