Al Capone Does My Shirts

Author Gennifer Choldenko really struck gold with her 2005 Newbery Honor-winning book Al Capone Does My Shirts. Set in 1935, a boy named Moose Flanagan and his family move to Alcatraz island when his father takes a job as a prison guard there. Moose isn't thrilled about having to live isolated on an island with a bunch of convicts, but his parents have good reason for the move. Moose's older sister Natalie isn't exactly all there in the head, and their parents hope that they'll be able to send Natalie to a special school in San Francisco that works with kids like her and could maybe cure her. When they arrive on Alcatraz, Moose quickly learns that the Rock has many rules even for civilians like him. Things become more complicated when Moose makes friends with Piper, the warden's daughter, who comes up with elaborate schemes that break all of these rules and could land the two of them in big trouble.

Unfortunately, the Flanagans get some bad news: Natalie will not be accepted at the school they had hoped to send her to, even though they're sure that the school would be the best thing to help her. But what can they do about it? Not much...but maybe Prisoner 85, better known as Al Capone, could!

Overall Grade: A+

In the newly-released sequel Al Capone Shines My Shoes, things pick up right where they left off. Thanks to Al Capone, Natalie is leaving home to attend her special school. Moose is left with a string of his own problems though. Jimmy is jealous of one of Moose's baseball-playing friends from San Francisco. Annie wants Moose to spill his secret about Capone's help. Piper is constantly worrying about her mother and the new baby she is expecting, certain that she'll be ignored once the baby arrives, and takes all of her worry out on everyone else. One of the guards seems to have it out for him. Worst of all, Moose gets another message from Al Capone in his laundry: "Your turn." Capone clearly wants Moose to do something to return the favor for his services. Even though Moose knows that helping one of the convicts could mean major trouble for everyone, he doesn't exactly have a choice - after all, if Capone had enough power to get Natalie into her school, he could easily get her kicked out. How can he say no?

Overall Grade: A

These books are truly fascinating. The setting itself is very well drawn out, and Choldenko has clearly done her research about the time period and about life on Alcatraz. The characters themselves are brilliantly drawn and likable, and the dialogue is spot on. Natalie's character is especially intriguing. As you will see in Choldenko's excellent set of Author's Notes at the end of each book(which also include great historical information about Alcatraz), Natalie suffers from what we would today recognize as autism, but at the time when this book takes place they didn't have a word for her condition, so it is never used. Because of this, we get to really explore the ways that Natalie interacts with the world around her without being distracted by knowing what she suffers from.

The sequel is nearly as perfect as the original, and the author did a great job of creating a believable follow-up story that flows perfectly from the first. My only complaint is that while she hasn't lost any of her spunk, Piper was much less exciting to me as she was wallowed up in worry than when she's plotting to exploit her position as the warden's daughter and a citizen on Alcatraz for her own benefit. Despite this, the other characters are improved upon and given more depth and the style of writing remains as smooth and seamless as ever.