Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians (2007)

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians is a juvenile novel written by American author Bran-don Sanderson, published in October 2007 by Scholastic Press as part of the series by the same name. The book is named after its main character, Alcatraz Smedry.

Synopsis
On his thirteenth birthday, foster child Alcatraz Smedry gets a bag of sand in the mail-his only inheritance from his father and mother. He soon learns that this is no ordinary bag of sand. It is quickly stolen by the cult of evil Librarians who are taking over the world by spreading misinformation and suppressing truth. Alcatraz must stop them, using the only weapon he has: an incredible talent for breaking things.

Plot
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. Alcatraz 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 Crystin Knight about Alcatraz's age assigned to protect the Smedrys, 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

 * Leavenworth-Alcatraz's grandfather usually just referred to as Grandpa Smedery
 * Bastille-Leavenworth's body guard, a Crystin Knight
 * Sign-Sign- Alcatraz's Polynesian cousin
 * Quentin- Alcatraz's cousin
 * Shasta & Radrian Blackburn- the Librarians

Smedry Talents
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.

For more information see: Smedry Talents

Sequels
Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones was released in the United States November 1, 2008. A third Alcatraz book, called Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia, was released on October 1, 2009. The fourth book, Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens, and was released on December 1, 2010. In early 2013, because Scholastic only commissioned the first four books, and was unwilling to publish the fifth book, Sanderson bought back the rights to the series. He later sold the series to Tor Books who republished the series. The fifth book of the series, entitled The Dark Talent, was released September 6, 2016. The sixth book, (Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians: The Worldspire) is finished and finally has a publisher. (They are planning on reprinting the first five books in a paperback box set with new illustrations for the holiday season 2021, or early 2022.) Book six is expected to be released in Spring 2022 and is co-authored by Janci Patterson.

Film Adaptations
DreamWorks Animation acquired the film rights to Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians in June 2008. On January 3, 2011, Brandon Sanderson, the author of the novel, tweeted that DreamWorks did not renew the rights.