Bursting Box Publishing

Funny enough, Brandon Sanderson’s series of “Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians” was recommended to me by my husband and my sister.  She listened to this series and described them as hilarious and breaking the norm.  Yep.

Alcatraz is your average teenage orphan… except he’s not an orphan, and he’s not average – he has a ‘talent’ for breaking things, and he can wear a variety of powerful glasses (letting him see footprints, or shoot fire beams).  Other fun ‘talents’ of characters include: arriving late, tripping, and speaking nonsense.  It’s hilarious as each of these ‘talents’ actually prove to be helpful as they infiltrate a library.

While it feels a bit “Series of Unfortunate Events”-ish in the beginning, Alcatraz doesn’t get much time to learn and work on his abilities.  He gets 48 hours.  Seriously, the whole book takes place within two days.  Don’t worry, it’s not quite 300 pages long with double-spaced large font.

As ridiculous as it all seems, it pulls out some good morals and ideas for kids, and remains highly entertaining for adults.  (I particularly enjoyed how much it poked fun of writers). 😛  Simple and fun, and always crazy, this one gets ****4 Stars****

I also recommend the newer editions by Starscape (not Scholastic), as the pictures add a lot to the humor, sometimes by depicting what was expected to happen, not what actually happens. 😉

P.S. I want one: