Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians>
by Marc Tauss
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians (series) Precedes The Scrivener's Bones
Released	October 1, 2007
Publisher	Scholastic Press
ISBN	ISBN 0-439-92550-9

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians is a juvenile fiction novel by Brandon Sanderson, published in October 2007 by Scholastic. The book is named after its main character, Alcatraz Smedry.

Plot summary

For a complete chapter by chapter summary, see /Summary.

Alcatraz Smedry is an orphan boy with a propensity for breaking things. On this thirteenth birthday, he receives a package, purportedly from his parents, containing his inheritance: a bag of sand. He also burns down his foster parents' prized kitchen.

His case worker, Ms. Fletcher, arrives and informs Alcatraz that he will be placed in yet another home the next day. Unbeknownst to Alcatraz, she is actually a Librarian and has stolen the sand.

The next day, a loony old (but spry) man claiming to be his grandfather shows up and asks about the sand. When he learns that a Librarian has stolen it, they hurry away to try to recover it. The sands are rare and can be forged into powerful Lenses. Alcatraz doesn't believe the man is his Grandpa, but he decides to go along with him after some guy shows up and tries to shoot him.

Alcatraz meets two cousins, Sing Sing Smedry and Quentin Smedry, who have the Talents of tripping and talking gibberish, respectively. Alactraz learns that his penchant for breaking things is actually a powerful Talent that he can learn to control. They all decide to infiltrate the evil Librarian fortress (the local library) to recover the sand. Bastille, a Crystallin Knight about Alcatraz's age assigned to protect the Smedry's, is furious at such a reckless plan, but she has no choice but to follow along.

Sing creates a distraction by tripping and falling in the library, and the team heads into the employee entrance. They split up and search for the sands, but they are all eventually captured by the dark Oculator Radrian Blackburn and Ms. Fletcher. While Grandpa is tortured for information, Alcatraz and the rest of his crew escape from their prison and go to help. Fortunately, Grandpa is using his Talent of arriving late to postpone the pain and Quentin is just talking gibberish, so nothing has been revealed so far.

Alcatraz creates a distraction and rescues Grandpa, but Blackburn comes back, revealing that the Sands of Rashid have already been forged into Lenses. He and Grandpa have an Oculator's duel, which Blackburn wins, but Alcatraz tricks Blackburn into using the Firebringer's Lenses on himself, allowing them to grab the Lenses of Rashid and escape.

Characters

The plot of the book revolves around the title character and a small group of freedom fighters operating against the cult of evil librarians that secretly rule the world. These freedom fighters include Alcatraz's grandfather, Leavenworth, usually just referred to as "Grandpa Smedry"; Bastille, Grandpa's bodyguard and a Crystin Knight; Sing Sing - Sing for short - Alcatraz's Polynesian cousin; and Quentin, another cousin. The Librarians include Shasta Smedry/Ms. Fletcher, Alcatraz's case worker, who turns out to also be Alcatraz's mother, and Radrian Blackburn, a Dark Oculator.

Smedry Talents

For more information, see Smedry Talent.

In the course of the book, it is revealed that Alcatraz's biological family, the Smedrys, all are born with amazing talents that they use to combat the evil cult of librarians.

Alcatraz has the talent of breaking things.

Grandpa Smedry, Alcatraz's grandfather, has the power to arrive late to appointments. As such, he is always running behind the clock. But his power also allows him to arrive late to other things, like bullets, which always miss him, and his blood can arrive late to wounds so that he doesn't bleed to death. In his own words "I've been arriving late to my own death for years now."

Sing, Alcatraz's cousin, has the talent of falling down at opportune moments. And, while it is admitted that this is less powerful than Alcatraz or Grandpa's talents, it allows Sing to make amazing diversions while the others slip by Librarian eyes undetected. Sing can also tell when danger is approaching by uncontrollably falling down.

Quentin, another cousin, has the talent to speak gibberish or nonsensical phrases. His talent was beneficial after being captured by the librarians, as they could not understand him and thus could not gain important information from him, even through torture. It was through some of Quentin's supposed gibberish that Alcatraz was prompted to know what do to in future events.

Film Adaptations

Dreamworks Animation SKG acquired the film rights to Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians in June 2008.

Cover Art Gallery

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  Tor Re-release Hardcover

Notes

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