Al Capone Does My Shirts

Al Capone Does My Shirts

By Gennifer Choldenko

Published by Puffin (2006)

Reading Level: Ages 9-12 years

Pages: 240

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary: Moose's father gets a job working on Alcatraz Island as a guard and electrician and he moves his family there. He takes the job so that Moose's older sister Natalie can get into a special school for children with disabilities like Natalie's. Lots of other families live on Alcatraz as well. The Warden's daughter, Piper is always getting him in trouble and comes up with schemes that get them in trouble, most of them deal with talking about Alcatraz's most notorious criminal, Al Capone. Natalie doesn't get into the school and their mom gets really upset and hires a private tutor to help her get ready for the school. The tutor recommends that Moose take her everywhere with him. Moose would take her with him and leave her alone for a few minutes while he looked for a ball that was used by the inmates. He discovered that when he left her alone another inmate would talk to her and Moose didn't know what happened between them so he refused to take her out anymore. Natalie didn't get in to the school again so Moose writes a letter to Al Capone and asks for his help. Al Capone gets Natalie into the school.

My Reaction: I thought it was good. I didn't think it was out of this world fantastic, but I thought it was good enough to buy the sequel.

Potential Problems: Moose thinks that his sister might have been abused, there is some violence.

Recommendations: I recommended it to my thirteen year old sister.