Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Moose Flanagan is a typical 1930s boy from San Francisco. He goes to a state school, loves baseball and everything else most kids of the time do. There’s only one thing; he and his family live on Alcatraz Island, home to the most infamous criminals, like Machine-Gun Kelly and the most infamous of them all, Al Capone.

So, maybe Moose isn’t that normal. At his new school he’s squeezing in as much time as he can to play baseball with his friend Scout. He and the other players don’t understand what Moose does for his sister, Natalie. She has a condition called Autism (but it was not recognised in 1935) and so he must look after her whilst his father works at the prison and his mother teaches piano on the mainland.

Moose is always helping Nat as much as possible. The main plot of the story is getting her to a school for children who have similar conditions, called the Esther P. Marinoff. She has already had a trial their but she was sent home due to her ‘early- rising habits’. After her being turned down, Moose looks after her whenever he is home. He works hard considering that he doesn’t get to be with the other kids living on the island as much.

Whilst this is happening, Scout has stopped Moose from joining in with baseball. Moose thinks that if he can give Scout a convict’s baseball (they sometimes fly over the wall), then he will be allowed to join in again. Whilst he searches he leaves Natalie somewhere near by. He doesn’t feel easy about doing this but he wants to find the ball; ‘I wish I could see Natalie.’
When he returns to her, all she says is, ‘105’. Moose is utterly confused by this and can’t understand her.
When he goes back to search again he is appalled to find out that ‘105’ is a con that is working in the gardens, beyond the fence. Moose frets terribly that something more happened between Natalie and the gardener. He hates himself for leaving her and really wants to get Natalie somewhere safe. The Esther P. Marinoff.

Natalie, meanwhile, has been making progress with a teacher named Carrie Kelly and is proposed to retry for the school. Again she fails and Moose’s family is in despair. But then the Warden’s crafty daughter (Piper) has an idea. Doesn’t Al Capone have some connections?

So Moose slips him a letter in the washing, which the cons do, and hopes for the best. Soon after, Natalie is accepted in to the Esther P. Marinoff. And Moose finds a note in his shirt pocket, saying, ‘Done.’

I really enjoyed this book, as it was mostly realistic. It was a simple book but it had you going through Moose’s emotions all the time. I believe its message was to keep trying with anything you do. I would say the only negative aspect of this is that the message also seems that you can cheat to get where you want to, but I was to happy for this fictional family to properly think about it. I advise anyone to read this book from about 12+, a definite must!

JB Year 9