Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones

Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones
by Brandon Sanderson
Recommended Ages: 10+

What you think is history is actually fantasy. What you think is fantasy is reality. Behind it all is a conspiracy of evil, soul-devouring librarians. Resisting them are a band of heroes from a continent you don't even know exists. And leading a mission to stop the librarians from getting their hands on ancient technology that could tilt the balance in their favor forever is a kid named Alcatraz Smedry, who can do seemingly magical things by looking through special lenses, and who has the super-power of breaking things. That doesn't sound like a superpower to you? It comes in handy when someone aims a gun at him, and that seems to happen a lot.

In this adventure, Alcatraz gets swept up into an aerial battle on board a glass dragon. He meets an uncle whose super-power is getting lost and a cousin whose special ability is looking ugly when she wakes up. You can't pick your super-powers, but you can do nifty things with them if you use them right. Joined by a mother-daughter pair of warriors, they travel to one of the most dangerous Librarian strongholds: the Library of Alexandria, where to borrow a book, you have to surrender your soul and become one of the horrible, wraith-like curators, forever. Alcatraz hopes to find his long-lost father (who specializes in losing things) and his grandpa, who is always late. But along the way, he must face an enemy who is part human and part machine, survive traps, outwit a bunch of soulless spirits and process unexpected discoveries about his own powers.

Like the previous book Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, this book supplies a steady stream of excitement, intrigue and bizarre imagery, building a unique fantasy world within our present-day world. At the same time, it relentlessly pokes fun at the reader, inviting laughs and provoking intelligent thoughts at the same time.

This is the second of currently five books in Brandon Sanderson's kid-friendly "Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians" series. After this come Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia, Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens and The Dark Talent. Sanderson's works for older teens include the "Reckoners" trilogy, The Rithmatist and, coming out in November 2018, Skyward. His adult fiction includes Elantris, Warbreaker, six "Mistborn" novels, two "Infinity Blade" novels, two "Legion" novels, the "Stormlight Archive" trilogy, and the concluding three books of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series.