In ‘The Billionaire Trilogy’, Richard Newsome has written an adventure series that has shades of Indiana Jones and a Dan Brown thriller, pitched at a level that is accessible for its younger audience. In this excitement-filled final instalment, our protagonist Gerald Wilkins finds himself smack in the middle of the answer to everything—but unfortunately, this includes a murder charge. When Gerald is framed for the murder of his evil nemesis Mason Green, he is forced to go on the run, along with his trusty sidekicks, twins Sam and Ruby Valentine. The trio needs to find the ruby casket, an unknown treasure, and prove Gerald’s innocence. This leads them on a fast-paced series of adventures through France, the Vatican City and Greece. Meanwhile, Mason Green’s niece Charlotte is striving for world domination. Will Gerald, Sam and Ruby stop Charlotte or will Gerald end up in prison? While the story might follow a predictable formula, the excitement level is high, and is bound to keep children aged 9-12 enthralled.
Anne Copeland is a freelance reviewer and education accounts manager for Dymocks, Collins St in Melbourne. This review first appeared in the August issue of Bookseller+Publisher magazine.
Zac is a teenager from the wrong side of the tracks sent along with a dozen others to Cook School, run on a country property by the famous Head Chef and his strict assistant Fabian. While most of the no-hopers drop out, Zac and his pal Hunter catch on to Head Chef ’s drive for foodie perfection, and farm manager Terry imparts his skills in raising and butchering fresh meat. Some readers may be challenged by the unpunctuated stream-of-consciousness narrative, but by sticking with it for a few chapters, you really get into Zac’s head. On the surface this novel plays on our obsession with reality TV, fame and in particular cooking shows such as MasterChef. But as you read on it becomes apparent that questions of class, aspiration and success are at the heart of this complex, nuanced book. Zac takes the individualistic, ultra-capitalist approach of Head Chef and his backer the Master to a darker, stranger place with his ruminations on ‘service’ and his obsessions with perfection in food. As the dreams of everyone involved begin to crumble in the inevitable boom/bust cycle, Zac’s final meal will be a Pyrrhic triumph. This is a black parable on contemporary society.
In 2005 Kate Grenville wrote the bestselling and multiaward-winning The Secret River. She followed it up with The Lieutenant, a novel inspired by the First Fleet diaries of William Dawes. Completing this loose trilogy is Sarah Thornhill. William Thornhill, the main character from The Secret River, is a man ‘sent out’ to Australia for theft, who is now a landowner on the Hawkesbury River—a river with a secret. This time it is his daughter’s turn to tell her tale. This book is told in first person, through Sarah’s eyes, and through her we meet Jack Langland, son of a white father and Aboriginal mother. Ultimately, this book is about blood ties, love that is blind, the ‘sins of the fathers’ and a family’s secret, which reaches across the Tasman to New Zealand. Sarah says it’s an account ‘of those things left undone that we ought to have done, and the things done that we ought not to have done’. Unashamedly romantic, Sarah Thornhill will appeal to lovers of colonial Australian fiction. Its themes of young love lost and the destructive power of secrets, and Grenville’s clear writing, will also make it attractive to younger readers.
The Text Prize is going from strength to strength, as the publisher continues to choose winners that push the boundaries of young adult fiction. The latest winner, 
