Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians

Redo due to corrections
Summary

This week, October 18-25, I chose to write about a fantasy book, Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians. This story takes place in the world we live in, but has an alternate society in it. Alcatraz has been living in foster care all his life and he thinks he is a klutz. Alcatraz turns thirteen and receives a package of sand from his parents. The day after he receives the package, a man saying he is his grandfather shows up and tells Alcatraz he has a mission. It turns out the mission has to do with the sand he received and now the sand is missing. The sand has fallen into the evil librarians’ hand and if they don’t get the sand back it will be used for evil. The librarians, Alcatraz finds out, only let people know what they want them to know and nothing else. Information is power only for the librarians. In the course of the story, Alcatraz finds out his klutziness is the special power he has as an occulator. An occulator uses special glasses that allow Alcatraz to see the alternate society and he can see what the librarians are hiding. Alcatraz is successful in his mission to save a society and retrieves the special glasses made from the sand he received.

Impression

I thought the story was fanciful and was an enjoyable book to read. I plan to use this book in my book talk later this semester. This book will be enjoyed by any fan of fantasy or science fiction because it is in a take me away read. I see boys liking this book very much.

Review from a customer on Amazon.com

By Paul Christopher

First off, I should say that in my mid twenties I am a little older than the target "reading level" of this book. However, that didn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying every word of it. I am a big fan of Brandon Sanderson, and am glad to see that his writing skill can equally please readers of all ages.

Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians is the most cleverly written book I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The precisely written narration is what I enjoyed the most. Each chapter, Alcatraz (the narrator) breaks away from the story, to talk to the reader from the voice of the author. These little sections are filled with really clever tidbits that on many occasions had me laughing out loud.

The story itself is entertaining as well. True to Sanderson's form, some of the characters have a special magical "talent" that they use in very creative ways. These talents are attributes that we might not normally see as an advantage, such as always arriving late, and tripping and falling in very dramatic ways. Sanderson also does a great job shedding new light on the world we live in by comparing it to a more advanced society where light bulbs are inferior to open flames (since lights can't set things on fire) and stairs are more advanced than elevators (because you get a work out climbing them).

This is a book that I think any kid will love, with the parents enjoying it equally as much.

Lesson

In a classroom setting I would use this book in a book talk to give students options of different genres to read. I would also use this book as a read aloud and have the students continue to work with the story as a writing activity maybe make up their own story battleing the evil librarians.