BOOKTALK: Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Things just aren't going Moose Flanagan’s way. He has to leave his friends and winning baseball team behind. He never sees his Dad because he’s always working on his new job, and his Mom is acting just plain weird. Mom tries to make everyone believe Moose’s sister Natalie is ten, when she's really fifteen, going on sixteen. But Natalie is a little different. She has autism and sometimes her strange behavior gets Moose into trouble, especially now that he’s watching her. What’s a twelve-year-old guy to do? Having to move with your family isn't that unusual, unless you're moving to the “Rock”…Devil’s Island…ALCATRAZ.

It’s 1935, and Moose’s Dad has just started working as a prison guard on Alcatraz Island. Moose isn't too sure about this “twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water”. And on Alcatraz, trouble is never very far away. Other kids live here with their families, and most of them seem all right…except for Piper. She’s the Warden’s daughter and sure, she's cute…but she's bad news. Piper has a scheme going all the time and nobody’s safe. She lies to her Dad, takes her classmates to the cleaners, and is determined to involve Moose in her plans. And let’s not even talk about the prisoners. Alcatraz gets the worst of the worst…the convicts other prisons don’t want. One of them is even famous. Alcatraz is home to the notorious gangster, Al Capone.

When the Flanagan family has a crisis and there’s nowhere to turn, will Moose break the most important rule on the Island: Never interact with or contact a convict? Would Moose dare to ask the most famous prisoner of all, Al Capone, for help? Find out in Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.

Written by Patricia Jansen (graduate student)