Book Review – “Alcatraz vs. The Evil Librarians” by Brandon Sanderson

**Potential spoilers ahead**

I’d heard Brandon Sanderson mention this series in several episodes of the Writing Excuses podcast. So I had to see if my local library had them. I was excited to see that they did! And that ALL of the books were actually on the shelf! (Naturally, I grabbed the entire series – the first two books one day; then, when I saw that my brother just devoured those first two, I went and got the other three.)

This book was hilariously oddball. Twelve-year-old Alcatraz Smedry has an unusual talent for breaking things. We first see him as he burns down his foster family’s kitchen… by accident. He receives an unusual birthday present, an “inheritance” from his parents – a bag of sand. Then he meets his grandfather, who tells him just how amazingly special, and rare, Al’s Talent (yes, with a capital “T”) really is. When that bag of sand is stolen (which is also special) Alcatraz and his grandfather, along with a small team, infiltrate the Librarians’ headquarters – the city’s largest library.

The series is told from the point of view of an adult Alcatraz, and we frequently see this older self interject comments – that frequently seem random, but given the rest of the story, it fits right in – before going right back to the story. He tells us that this work is published in the Hushlands (controlled by the Librarians) as a work of fantasy, but as an autobiography in the Free Kingdom lands (not Librarian-controlled), partly to show that Alcatraz is not really a good person that everybody seems to think he is.

I’ve read the first two books in the series (book two review to come later) and I cannot wait to see how the rest of this silly series goes!

If you’re looking for a middle grade fantasy (urban fantasy, maybe?) with lots of humor, then this series just might be for you.

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