Gennifer Choldenko: Al Capone Does My Shirts

Putnam Publishing (Hardcover), ISBN 0399238611

When Moose Flanagan’s dad accepts a job as a prison guard at Alcatraz, Mr. Flanagan sees the move as a chance to offer the family a better life. Mrs. Flanagan hopes Moose’s sister Natalie will now attend the Esther P. Marinoff School for special children. All Moose knows is that he’s leaving his baseball buddies and his former life on the mainland to move to a “twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd.”

Not that other kids don’t live on Alcatraz Island. Moose just prefers friends who play baseball after school instead of plot to sell the baseballs prisoners hit over the fence. He’d rather find a normal girlfriend than be bribed by the warden’s bossy (but cute) daughter with her cooked-up scheme to persuade the notorious Al Capone to wash their classmates’ laundry.

But Moose works to make the most of living across a chain-link fence from murderers, rapists and the kinds of convicts rejected by other prisons, and a strange thing happens. Natalie’s unlikely friendship with a feisty seven-year-old and Moose’s unconditional love for his sister somehow work together to help Natalie fit in, even if that fit is tenuous. The gang of youngsters turns into a band of friends. They gradually come to accept this young woman, who suffers with what would now be diagnosed as autism.

Eventually the Esther P. Marinoff School refuses to accept Natalie, and Moose decides to take matters into his own hands — or rather into the hands of Al Capone. Kids will cheer Moose’s ingenuity and appreciate what he does out of love for his sister. From the laugh-out-loud funny scene when Mrs. Capone’s corset sets off the metal detector on a visit to the prison, to the engaging plot line of Moose’s budding friendship with the warden’s daughter, Choldenko’s writing sparkles with humor.

The helpful author’s notes at the end of the book explain that Alcatraz served as a working penitentiary from 1934-1963, and between fifty and sixty families lived there at any given time. Based on research and personal experience, the heartfelt portrayal of Natalie was inspired by Gennifer Choldenko’s own autistic sister. This treasure of a novel is perfect for reading with a middle-grade child or sharing with a class full of them. Don’t miss it.

Augusta Scattergood

Augusta Scattergood, a librarian and member of SCBWI, reads and reviews books from her home in New Jersey.